xSHELLS
xSHELLS is a high-performance simulation code for the rotating Navier–Stokes equation in spherical shells, optionally coupled to the induction and temperature equations. It is widely used to study processes such as the Earth’s geodynamo, where fluid motion and magnetic field generation are tightly linked.
By combining finite-difference methods in the radial direction with spherical harmonic transforms, calculated using the SHTns library, a highly efficient tool for handling complex spherical mathematics, xSHELLS achieves exceptional speed and scalability, running efficiently from laptops to the most powerful supercomputers
The code offers ready-to-use setups for various geophysical and astrophysical studies, works with modern parallel computing (MPI, OpenMP, GPU), and includes tools for visualizing results in Python and ParaView. Open-source and validated against standard benchmarks, xSHELLS is a trusted tool for exploring complex fluid and magnetic processes in planets and stars.
High-definition turbulent geodynamo
Using the xshells code on thousands of computer cores allowed to simulate the generation of the Earth’s magnetic field with unprecedented resolution.
Schaeffer et al. 2017 doi:10.1093/gji/ggx265
Features
Versatile
Easy to use, with a comprehensive user manual and example parameter files for geodynamo, double-diffusive convection, precession, spherical Couette, and more.
Scalable
Runs from your laptop to massively parallel and GPU-accelerated supercomputers, using both MPI, OpenMP and CUDA/HIP.
Visualization ready
Tools for post-processing and visualization in python and paraview are provided.
Free and Open
Distributed under the CeCILL License (compatible with GNU GPL). Everybody is free to use, modify, contribute.
Validated
Xshells passes the geodynamo benchmarks and the full-sphere benchmarks.
To Know More
Developers
Nathanaël Schaeffer
ISTerre/CNRS
License
CeCILL License (compatible with GNU GPL): everybody is free to use, modify, and contribute.
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2010-2020 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. written by Nathanael Schaeffer (CNRS, ISTerre, Grenoble, France). XSHELLS is distributed under the open source CeCILL License (GPL compatible) located in the LICENSE file.
