Virtual Event: Annual Seminar 2020

The GFDL Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core, or FV3, is designed to be an accurate, efficient, and adaptable dynamical core useful for a variety of weather and climate applications. In this talk, I discuss how FV3 is designed, implemented, and used. I recapitulate the history of FV3's development from S-J Lin's original finite-volume advection scheme, to the vertically-Lagrangian FV dynamical core, and to the present-day all-scale nonhydrostatic FV3 core. The motivations and philosophy behind the discretizations of FV3 are discussed. I conclude with a discussion of FV3's moist thermodynamics, integrated physics, and prospects for unified modeling with FV3-based models.