Reference LES Simulations for Ocean Models Validation

All Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) computations are conducted with the open-source PALM solver (https://palm.muk.uni-hannover.de/trac) and version 5.0 of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (https://github.com/lanl/palm_lanl) branch. The simulations use a cubical domain with length L=128m, three grid resolutions (N=128³, 256³, or 512³), and mimic four single-column canonical oceanic regimes in which the surface flux and background stratification profiles are imposed. These simulations are named cooling (c), stratification (s), evaporation (e), and mixed (m): <strong>cooling cases</strong> test different surface heat fluxes: Q_h=-1.185x10^-5 (c₀₁), -2.371x10^-5 (c₀₂), -4.742x10^-5 (c₀₄), and -18.966x10^-5 (c₁₆) [K.m/s]. The background stratification is set through a vertical temperature gradient (T_z) equal to 0.1 [K/m], and both the salinity surface flux (Q_s) and the background stratification due to vertical salinity gradient (S_z) are equal to zero. <strong>stratification cases</strong> are similar to the cooling c₀₂ case, but Q_h=-2.371x10^-5 [K.m/s], and T_z=0.01 (s₀₁), 0.1 (s₁₀), or 0.2 (s₂₀) [K/m]. <strong>evaporation cases</strong> define Q_h=T_z=0, S_z=-0.025 [PSU/m], and Q_s=3.115x10^-6 (e₀₁) or 1.225x10^-5 (e₀₄) [PSU/(m².s)]. <strong>mixed cases</strong> combine heat and salinity surface fluxes, and the background stratification is imposed by both vertical temperature and salinity gradients. There are four mixed cases in which Q_h=-1.185x10^-6 [K.m/s], T_z=0.05 [K/m], S_z=-0.025 [PSU/m], and Q_s is either 0 (m₀₁), 3.115x10^-6 (m₀₂), 9.10x10^-6 (m₀₃), or 4.55x10^-5 (m₀₄) [PSU/(m².s)]. The simulations run 96h at a latitude of 43.29^o, and utilize a linear equation of state where the reference temperature and salinity are 293.15 K and 35 PSU. The subgrid turbulent scales are modeled through the Moeng and Wyngaard SGS closure (see PALM documentation), and the flow is perturbed during the first 150 s of simulation with normally distributed fluctuations with a maximum amplitude of 10^-4. The dataset provides 1D and 3D statistics. The 1D profiles are time-averaged during 3600 s and written every 3600 s. The 3D fields are not time-averaged and written every 3600 s, except those obtained with the grid having 512³ points. In this case, the data are written every 21,600 s. The 3D fields are not in the tar file but can be requested by emailing the authors ([e-mail]). The PALM input decks of the simulations are included in the shared files.<br> <br> <strong>Note:</strong> the PALM version used in this work requires the 1D salinity flux profiles to be normalized by the product of N_xandN_y(number of grid points in x and y) <strong>LA-UR-22-32996</strong>