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Introduction to regional ocean modelisation with CROCO

This course is part of the GDRI CROCO-Sud Summer school that is held in Cape Town (South Africa) in November 2023.

The Basic week course is composed of a suite of lectures and hands-on sessions. It follows all steps to prepare a CROCO configuration, making sure that each step will be explained in detail. Particular attention will be given to practicals and immediate application of the classes during hands-on sessions. The attendees will directly apply the morning class during the afternoon hands-on sessions on computers.

This course is designed for researchers, students, working professionals and/or interested in the use and features of numerical models of the ocean. A basic knowledge of physical oceanography (undergraduate level) and experience working with computer programming with Matlab/Octave, optionally Python, and knowledge of the Linux operating system is required.

Day 1 - 9h30-12h30 - 14h-16h30:

  • COURSE : "Introduction to regional ocean modeling", followed by a round-table discussion during which attendees will present their scientific objectives and their expectations for this class
  • Hands on sessions:
    • TUTORIAL1 :
      Presentation of CROCO and CROCO_tools environment
    • Quick linux/NetCDF recaps
    • TUTORIAL2 :
      Preprocessing steps: design of the model grid and work on the vertical sigma parameters

Day 2 - 9h30-12h30 - 14h-16h30:

  • COURSE : "Numerical aspects I: Finite differences: spatial and temporal discretisations"
  • COURSE : Description of Surface Forcings and Open Lateral Boundary conditions
    • TUTORIAL4 (Summary table ):
      • Creation of all CROCO Forcing inputs (climatological forcing)
      • Launch of the model (climatological configuration)

Day 3 - 9h30-12h30 - 14h-16h30:

  • COURSE : "Numerical aspects II" Consistency and stability of a numerical scheme, introduction to CFL condition, and quick overview of Sigma coordinates and truncation error
    • TUTORIAL5 :
      • Solving the 1D-advection equation
      • Model outputs analysis
  • COURSE : Introduction to online nesting :
    • TUTORIAL6 :
      • Creation of all CROCO inputs files (climatological forcing) for a zoom
      • Launch of the model (climatological configuration) with a zoom

Day 4 - 9h30-12h30 - 14h-16h30:

  • CROCO GAME: Role game in order to give a complete understanding of the model input files, with an emphasis on how the model handles the time
  • TUTORIAL7 : Running an interannual simulation (Summary table )
    • Preparation of an interannual simulation input files
    • Launch of the inter-annual simulation

Day 5 - 9h30-12h30 - 14h-16h30

  • COURSE: How to take into account the river run-off? DEMO
  • COURSE: Parallelisation in CROCO
  • Analysis of the inter-annual simulation outputs

  • DISCUSSION: Notion of model validation
  • ASSESSMENTS: Students' presentations and graduation