MPDATA-A Multipass Donor Cell Solver for Geophysical Flows

This article is a summary of MPDATA, a class of methods for the numerical simulation of fluid flows based on the sign-preserving properties of upstream differencing. MPDATA was designed originally as an inexpensive alternative to flux-limited schemes for evaluating the advection of nonnegative thermodynamic variables (such as liquid water or water vapor) in atmospheric models. During the last decade, MPDATA has evolved from a simple advection scheme to a general approach for integrating the conservation laws of geophysical fluids on micro-to-planetary scales. The purpose of this paper is to outline the basic concepts leading to a family of MPDATA schemes, highlight existing MPDATA options, and to comment on the use of MPDATA to model complex geophysical flows.