Global-scale tsunami simulations using the discontinuous Galerkin method
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We present a novel method for the simulation of large scale tsunami events using a high-order discontinuous Galerkin discretization of the spherical shallow water equations. This requires a well-balanced discretization, which cannot rely on exact quadrature, due to the curved mesh. We achieve this by splitting the well-balanced condition into individual problems for the flux and volume terms. As it turns out, this approach has significant advantages: It allows the construction of non-conforming, well-balanced flux discretizations. Thus we can perform non-conforming mesh refinement, all while preserving the well-balanced property of the scheme. More importantly, we are able to develop a new method for handling wet/dry transitions. In contrast to other wetting/drying methods, this method is well-balanced and able to handle wetting/drying at any order - all without the introduction of further model assumptions such as artificial viscosity, porosity or cancellation of gravity. We demonstrate our new method for both the one-dimensional and spherical shallow water equa- tions. In the latter case, we perform a simulation of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami and validate our results with real-world buoy data.