An unstructured-grid, nonhydrostatic, GVC ocean model Part I: Model description and application of vertical hybrid coordinates to internal solitary waves
Abstract
We present a nonhydrostatic ocean model with a horizontally unstructured, C-grid and a moving, generalized vertical coordinate (GVC) designed for the simulation of nonhydrostatic processes in realistic ocean domains. The GVC system can represent any of the well-known z-level, terrain-following, or isopycnal coordinates while also being able to employ hybrid vertical coordinates. In this paper we outline the specific steps needed to incorporate the GVC system into the unstructured, C-grid, nonhydrostatic, z-coordinate SUNTANS model of Fringer et al. (2006). The approach is adapted from the nonhydrostatic, isopycnal-coordinate method of Vitousek and Fringer (2014), yet our model differs from that implementation through the development of a conservative momentum advection scheme and a positivity-preserving layer height scheme for horizontally unstructured grids. We validate the momentum advection implementation with simulations of a turbulent channel flow and demonstrate the advantages of the hybrid vertical coordinate approach over z- or terrain-following coordinates through simulations of internal solitary waves and the associated bottom boundary layer instability.
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BibTeX
@misc{pauken2026unstructuredgrid,
title = {{An unstructured-grid, nonhydrostatic, GVC ocean model Part I: Model description and application of vertical hybrid coordinates to internal solitary waves}},
author = {B. J. Pauken and L. Yue and Y. Zhang and S. Vitousek and O. B. Fringer},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.28356},
eprint = {2607.28356},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.28356},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - An unstructured-grid, nonhydrostatic, GVC ocean model Part I: Model description and application of vertical hybrid coordinates to internal solitary waves
AU - B. J. Pauken
AU - L. Yue
AU - Y. Zhang
AU - S. Vitousek
AU - O. B. Fringer
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.28356
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.28356
AB - We present a nonhydrostatic ocean model with a horizontally unstructured, C-grid and a moving, generalized vertical coordinate (GVC) designed for the simulation of nonhydrostatic processes in realistic ocean domains. The GVC system can represent any of the well-known z-level, terrain-following, or isopycnal coordinates while also being able to employ hybrid vertical coordinates. In this paper we outline the specific steps needed to incorporate the GVC system into the unstructured, C-grid, nonhydrostatic, z-coordinate SUNTANS model of Fringer et al. (2006). The approach is adapted from the nonhydrostatic, isopycnal-coordinate method of Vitousek and Fringer (2014), yet our model differs from that implementation through the development of a conservative momentum advection scheme and a positivity-preserving layer height scheme for horizontally unstructured grids. We validate the momentum advection implementation with simulations of a turbulent channel flow and demonstrate the advantages of the hybrid vertical coordinate approach over z- or terrain-following coordinates through simulations of internal solitary waves and the associated bottom boundary layer instability.
ER -