Ocean circulation on the Intel Paragon: modeling and implementation

Abstract

In this paper, we present the modeling and implementation of a grand-challenge problem in the field of scientific computation: the Primitive-Equation Numerical Ocean Circulation Model. We present the mathematical formulation of the model and propose a scheme for its parallel implementation. Optimizations are made through collective communications and various partitioning schemes. In our experiments using up to 100 processors on the Intel Paragon parallel computer, the proposed strategy yields an encouraging speedup and exhibits a sustained scalability with increasing both the problem and machine sizes. We consider barotropic continental shelf waves in a periodic channel as a test problem. The model has numerous applications in environmental studies and ocean sciences.