An improved version of the piecewise parabolic method advection scheme: description and performance assessment in a bidimensional test case with stiff chemistry in toyCTM v1.0.1

Abstract

This study presents a novel method to estimate the performance of advection schemes in numerical experiments along with a semi-realistic, non-linear, stiff chemical system. This method is based on the examination of the “signature function”, an invariant of the advection equation. Apart from exposing this concept in a particular numerical test case, we show that a new numerical scheme based on a combination of the piecewise parabolic method (PPM) with the flux adjustments of Walcek outperforms both the PPM and the Walcek schemes for inert tracer advection as well as for advection of chemically active species. From a fundamental point of view, we think that our evaluation method, based on the invariance of the signature function under the effect of advection, offers a new way to evaluate objectively the performance of advection schemes in the presence of active chemistry. More immediately, we show that the new PPM + W (“piecewise parabolic method + Walcek”) advection scheme offers chemistry-transport modellers an alternative, high-performance scheme designed for Cartesian-grid Eulerian chemistry-transport models, with improved performance over the classical PPM scheme. The computational cost of PPM + W is not higher than that of PPM. With improved accuracy and controlled computational cost, this new scheme may find applications in other fields such as ocean models or atmospheric circulation models.