From 5/16-24/22, Paul Bremner (ST13) participated in a software code hackathon to add features and capabilities to ASPECT (https://aspect.geodynamics.org/), an open source geodynamic software that simulates convection in planetary interiors. The annual hackathon was hosted by the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG, https://geodynamics.org/cig/). This year’s event was hybrid in-person/virtual with participants from across Europe and the US.
To further expand ASPECT for application to rocky planets and moons beyond Earth, Bremner joined colleagues to improve simulation output parameters to be comparable with satellite observations. In addition, work is being done to provide an improved interface to read-in unstructured files of petrologic properties (e.g., density and seismic velocities at given a pressure and temperature), and to calculate and track composite materials and their associated composite properties and adding new capability to read-in netCDF binary files. Additional changes include refinements to the treatment of rheology, streamlining particle tracking, advanced solver-schemes, and transitioning to web searchable documentation.