Gravity wave tutorial

(WIP)

MIT GCM Tutorial -- Getting Started with the MITgcm

This is a short tutorial designed to walk someone through the main parts of the MITgcm and developing a sensible parameter set for your particular experiment. The MITgcm has a series of additional tutorials that may also be useful to you under the /verification/ folder. This tutorial is useful if you have never worked with the model before and want to very quickly get a sense of the main parts and offers a "hands on" alternative to sifting through the manual. The tutorial will also attempt to walk you through troubleshooting skills that will be useful as the manual becomes less so.

Troubleshooting Resources

The MITgcm Online Manual can be found here. A more useful, complete PDF file of the manual can be found [here|http://mitgcm.org/public/r2_manual/latest/online_documents/manual.pdf]. The MITgcm help support mailing list can be found here, and it is often useful to search the help inquiries (google with the addition site: mitgcm.org) if you are having a specific issue. Finally, the MITgcm is supported by a code browser that allows you to track certain variables within the entire code base. Keep in mind that this search model may contain out-of-date code, but it is a useful resource for sourcing where problems may be found. The best option is always to track it down in your local version of the MITgcm!

Acquiring the Code

The MITgcm page provides a relatively easy-to-follow set of instructions to picking up the code browser. Of course, best practice is to set up CVS so that the model can be updated if you're working on it long term, but you may find it easier to just use the .tar (non-Linux users, this is the equivalent of a .zip.

Getting Started with the Tutorial

The tutorial materials and some additional helpful scripts can be found at the git repository developed by Emily Tyhurst https://git.uwaterloo.ca/etyhurst/MITgcmUtils. (!!!) ADD INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO GIT THESE OVER**. For this tutorial you will need everything in the directory called tutorial wave.

Case 1: Looking at the Example

For this tutorial you will be looking at a very simple 2D simulation. A density difference established via a temperature difference begins at a perfect vertical division at t=0s. The division becomes a simple gravity wave as the warmer water floats and the cooler water sinks below. Below is an image of the simulation in the IGW, next to an image of what your simulation will hopefully look like in MATLAB.

(!!!) add images here

The first course of action is to compile the MITgcm into an executable file. Change directories into the 'build_folder' and run the following command: