Hydrostatic Hamiltonian particle-mesh (HPM) methods for atmospheric modelling

We develop a hydrostatic Hamiltonian particle-mesh (HPM) method for efficient long-term numerical integration of the atmosphere. In the HPM method, the hydrostatic approximation is interpreted as a holonomic constraint for the vertical position of particles. This can be viewed as defining a set of vertically buoyant horizontal meshes, with the altitude of each mesh point determined so as to satisfy the hydrostatic balance condition and with particles modelling horizontal advection between the moving meshes. We implement the method in a vertical-slice model and evaluate its performance for the simulation of idealized linear and nonlinear orographic flow in both dry and moist environments. The HPM method is able to capture the basic features of the gravity wave to a degree of accuracy comparable with that reported in the literature. The numerical solution in the moist experiment indicates that the influence of moisture on wave characteristics is represented reasonably well and the reduction of momentum flux is in good agreement with theoretical analysis. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society