Introducing AIBECS.jl, a Julia package for creating global marine biogeochemistry models

Abstract

Running standard global marine biogeochemistry models comes with large computational costs and with a steep learning curve. The recently developed AWESOME OCIM (for A Working Environment for Simulating Ocean Movement and Elemental cycling in an Ocean Circulation Inverse Model) is an attractive alternative because it offers better user experience thanks to a MATLAB Graphical User Interface (GUI), and faster computations thanks to the OCIM’s steady-state matrix formulation of the ocean circulation. Benoît will introduce and give a live demonstration of the AIBECS (for Algebraic Implicit Biogeochemical Elemental Cycling System), an open-source, user-friendly, fast, and modular Julia package, which aims to provide a solution to the limitations of the AWESOME OCIM. The AIBECS provides an Application Programming Interface (API) to generate global steady-state marine biogeochemistry models in just a few lines of code. Under the hood, the AIBECS comes with state-of-the-art nonlinear-system solvers, auto-differentiation algorithms, and was designed with parameter optimization/estimation and uncertainty analysis in mind. The AIBECS allows researchers to focus on the science rather than spending time reinventing the wheel for differentiating convoluted systems, for solving nonlinear problems, or for leveraging cryptic linear-algebra shortcuts. Because of its ease of use, the AIBECS is ideal for teaching and exploratory research. The AIBECS is also ideal for cutting-edge research owing to its open-source design, its modularity, its advanced algorithms, and its novel-diagnostic capabilities.

Benoît Pasquier

Research Associate

My research interests include mathematics, oceanography, and computer science.