Compatible finite elements for numerical weather prediction

I will discuss the application of compatible finite element methods to large scale atmosphere and ocean simulation. Compatible finite element methods extend Arakawa's “C-grid” finite difference scheme to the finite element world. They are constructed from a discrete de Rham complex, which is a sequence of finite element spaces which are linked by the operators of differential calculus. The use of discrete de Rham complexes to solve partial differential equations is well established, but in this talk I focus on the specifics of dynamical cores for simulating weather, oceans and climate. The most important consequence of the discrete de Rham complex is the Hodge-Helmholtz decomposition, which has been used to exclude the possibility of several types of spurious oscillations from linear equations of geophysical flow. This means that compatible finite element spaces provide a useful framework for building dynamical cores. In this talk I will introduce the main concepts of compatible finite element spaces, and discuss their wave propagation properties. I will then cover a selection of the following topics (depending on recent advances, and interests of the audience): practical application to numerical weather prediction and ocean models, structure preserving methods, and scalable iterative solver techniques.