The OASIS3 coupler: a European climate modelling community software

Abstract

This paper presents the OASIS3 coupling software used in five of the seven European Earth System Models (ESMs) participating to the Fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). A short history of the coupler development is followed by a technical description of OASIS3. The performances of a few relatively high resolution models coupled with OASIS3 are then described. It is shown that, although its limited field-per-field parallelism will eventually become a bottleneck in the simulation, OASIS3 can still be considered an appropriate tool for most of these relatively demanding coupled configurations. Its successful use in different CMIP5 ESMs is then detailed. A discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of the OASIS3's approach and a presentation of planned developments conclude the paper.