_images/vortex_rollup.png

pyqg: Python Quasigeostrophic Model

pyqg is a python solver for quasigeostrophic systems. Quasigeostophic equations are an approximation to the full fluid equations of motion in the limit of strong rotation and stratification and are most applicable to geophysical fluid dynamics problems.

Students and researchers in ocean and atmospheric dynamics are the intended audience of pyqg. The model is simple enough to be used by students new to the field yet powerful enough for research. We strive for clear documentation and thorough testing.

pyqg supports a variety of different configurations using the same computational kernel. The different configurations are evolving and are described in detail in the documentation. The kernel, implement in cython, uses a pseudo-spectral method which is heavily dependent of the fast Fourier transform. For this reason, pyqg tries to use pyfftw and the FFTW Fourier Transform library. (If pyfftw is not available, it falls back on numpy.fft) With pyfftw, the kernel is multi-threaded but does not support mpi. Optimal performance will be achieved on a single system with many cores.

Contents