Toward exascale climate modelling: a python DSL approach to ICON's (icosahedral non-hydrostatic) dynamical core (icon-exclaim v0.2.0)
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Open Access
- 22 January 2026
- journal article
- Published by Copernicus GmbH in Geoscientific Model Development
- Vol. 19 (2) , 713-729
Abstract
A refactored atmospheric dynamical core of the ICON model implemented in GT4Py, a Python-based domain-specific language designed for performance portability across heterogeneous CPU-GPU architectures, is presented. Integrated within the existing Fortran infrastructure, the new GT4Py dynamical core is shown to exceed ICON OpenACC performance. A multi-tiered testing strategy has been implemented to ensure numerical correctness and scientific reliability of the model code. Validation has been performed through global aquaplanet and prescribed sea-surface temperature simulations to demonstrate model's capability to simulate mesoscale and its interaction with the larger-scale at km-scale grid spacing. This work establishes a foundation for architecture-agnostic ICON global climate and weather model, and highlights poor strong scaling as a potential bottleneck in scaling toward exascale performance.Keywords
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