Our research group is currently utilizing TrixiAtmo.jl to explore the Held-Suarez test case, a widely recognized benchmark for atmospheric general circulation and climate models. First proposed by Held and Suarez in their 1994 paper, this idealized setup is designed to capture fundamental large-scale flow features of Earth’s atmosphere.

The model incorporates a simplified atmospheric forcing that establishes a decreasing temperature gradient from the equator to the poles and maintains a vertically balanced state. It also accounts for idealized boundary layer friction affecting the wind field. This configuration drives a characteristic atmospheric circulation: warm air rises at the equator, while colder air flows towards it at lower levels. The Coriolis force deflects this moving air, leading to the development of prominent jet streams in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

For our simulations, TrixiAtmo.jl employs a Discontinuous Galerkin Spectral Element Method (DGSEM) with flux differencing. We discretize the Earth’s atmosphere using a cubed sphere grid with 6 patches, each consisting of 10 x 10 x 8 cells. Starting from a state with constant temperature and without any motion, the video visualizes the simulated near-surface air temperature and the developing flow patterns.