Dataset: Coupled atmosphere-wave-ocean simulation of Hurricane Dorian (2019)

Model description
Atmosphere: Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF, https://github.com/wrf-model/WRF) model v4.2.2, with the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) dynamical core. The model has a 3-km resolution grid over the parent domain and a 1-km resolution nest over the Bahamas region (September 1-7 only), both with 45 vertical layers. Initial and boundary conditions are based on 6-hourly ERA-5 dataset.

Ocean Waves: University of Miami Wave Model (UMWM, https://umwm.org). The model is configured at the same 3-km as the atmosphere model, and has 36 directional bins and 37 frequency bins that are logarithmically spaced from 0.0313 to 2 Hz.

Ocean Circulation: HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM, https://github.com/HYCOM) v2.3.01, configured at 0.01-degree resolution and 41 vertical layers. Initial and boundary conditions are based on daily GOFS 3.1 41-layer HYCOM + NCODA Global 1/12° Analysis, daily. K-Profile Parameterization for vertical mixing.

Coupling: Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF, https://github.com/esmf-org/esmf) v8.0.1

Coupling interface: Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF, v8.0.0, https://github.com/esmf-org/esmf) is a software framework that facilitates data exchange and regridding between model components.

Coupled model implementation: The coupling of the atmosphere, ocean waves, and ocean circulation model components is done by implementing model component-specific interfaces using ESMF (the coupling framework). The implementation is largely based on the set of equations described in Curcic (2015). In a nutshell, the coupled model advances each model component by one or more time steps. Each model component may have different time steps. In the case of this simulation, WRF and UMWM were configured with 15-s time steps, while HYCOM was configured with a 5-s time step. Thus, for each of the WRF and UMWM time steps, HYCOM advances for three time steps. Once all three model components are co-located in time, the coupling interface performs the exchange of fields between the model components. WRF passes the horizontal components of 10-m wind vector and air density to UMWM, and radiative and enthalpy fluxes and precipitation to HYCOM. UMWM passes wave growth stress vector to WRF and wave-dissipative stress to HYCOM. Finally, HYCOM passes sea surface temperature and surface current to WRF, and surface current and water density to UMWM. Each model component then updates its model state with the coupling fields that it received from other components. The interpolation of fields between model grids is conservative and performed in parallel by ESMF using a sparse matrix multiplication-based algorithm.