A COMPARISON OF PARALLELIZATION TECHNIQUES FOR A FINITE-ELEMENT QUASI-GEOSTROPHIC MODEL OF REGIONAL OCEAN CIRCULATION

A barotropic, quasigeostrophic, finite-element model of regional ocean circulation is implemented on three parallel architectures: a Multipl e Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD) vector computer, a Single Instructi on Multiple Data (SIMD) hypercube, and a network of workstations conne cted together using Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). Specific computation-intensive tasks are identified, and alternative algorithms are implemented and compared. Detailed performance comparisons are pr esented. Issues in parallel algorithm design, such as portability, sca lability, and efficiency, are studied in an attempt to provide guidanc e to numerical modelers wishing to use parallel and distributed comput ing. The first intended application is the analysis of the meandering of the Kuroshio, an intense current in the North Pacific which is the dynamical analog of the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic. Here we con sider the distinctive eddy patterns off the coast of Japan. The model reproduces the observed bimodality, which appears in this model throug h a Hopf bifurcation.