Stochastic subgrid-scale parameterization for one-dimensional shallow water dynamics using stochastic mode reduction

We address the question of parameterizing the subgrid scales in simulations of geophysical flows by applying stochastic mode reduction to the one-dimensional stochastically forced shallow water equations. The problem is formulated in physical space by defining resolved variables as local spatial averages over finite-volume cells and unresolved variables as corresponding residuals. Based on the assumption of a time-scale separation between the slow spatial averages and the fast residuals, the stochastic mode reduction procedure is used to obtain a low-resolution model for the spatial averages alone with local stochastic subgrid-scale parameterization coupling each resolved variable only to a few neighboring cells. The closure improves the results of the low-resolution model and outperforms two purely empirical stochastic parameterizations. It is shown that the largest benefit is in the representation of the energy spectrum. By adjusting only a single coefficient (the strength of the noise) we observe that there is a potential for improving the performance of the parameterization, if additional tuning of the coefficients is performed. In addition, the scale-awareness of the parameterizations is studied.