A first look at MPAS hydrostatic dynamical core in real-world simulations

MPAS is an unstructured-grid approach to climate system modeling and it supports both quasi-uniform and variable resolution meshing of the sphere. We have integrated the MPAS hydrostatic dynamical core into CESM and this enables simulations with realistic topography and land use. We carried out 6-year CESM/MPAS runs at 1-deg resolution and compared with the default CESM FV dynamical core. The results show close resemblance between these two dynamical cores. Currently we are working on running 30-year AMIP simulations with MPAS on a 30-240km locally refined grid with the fine mesh located in the North America. We will evaluate if using MPAS variable-resolution mesh will improve the representation of the Great Plains Low-level Jet.