  High order spatial discretizations with monotonicity properties are often
desirable for the solution of hyperbolic PDEs. These methods can advantageously
be coupled with high order strong stability preserving time discretizations.
The search for high order strong stability time-stepping methods with large
allowable strong stability coefficient has been an active area of research over
the last two decades. This research has shown that explicit SSP Runge--Kutta
methods exist only up to fourth order. However, if we restrict ourselves to
solving only linear autonomous problems, the order conditions simplify and this
order barrier is lifted: explicit SSP Runge--Kutta methods of any linear order
exist. These methods reduce to second order when applied to nonlinear problems.
In the current work we aim to find explicit SSP Runge--Kutta methods with large
allowable time-step, that feature high linear order and simultaneously have the
optimal fourth order nonlinear order. These methods have strong stability
coefficients that approach those of the linear methods as the number of stages
and the linear order is increased. This work shows that when a high linear
order method is desired, it may be still be worthwhile to use methods with
higher nonlinear order.
