General Curvilinear Ocean Model (GCOM): Enabling Thermodynamics

General Curvilinear Ocean Model (GCOM) is a coastal ocean model curvilinear in 3 dimensions, developed by Carlos Torres et al. The model uses a direct numerical simulation (DNS) approach to solve the primitive Navier-Stokes equations and uses boundary fitted Curvilinear coordinates; therefore, it is possible to use GCOM in various topographies and meshes. GCOM is currently being coupled with heat and salinity conservation (or thermohaline dynamics) equations. GCOM is designed in a modular fashion, which will make it possible to easily add biogeochemical submodels to study different phenomenon, such as phytoplankton blooms, transport of pollution, or biogeochemical cycling. In a separate project an Atmosphere-Ocean Interaction model is developed, which will be coupled later to GCOM.