Logically rectangular finite volume methods with adaptive refinement on the sphere

Abstract

The logically rectangular finite volume grids for two-dimensional partial differential equations on a sphere and for three-dimensional problems in a spherical shell introduced recently have nearly uniform cell size, avoiding severe Courant number restrictions. We present recent results with adaptive mesh refinement using the G eo C law software and demonstrate well-balanced methods that exactly maintain equilibrium solutions, such as shallow water equations for an ocean at rest over arbitrary bathymetry.