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Reproducibility is a fundamental principle of scientific research. Bitwise identical reproducibility, i.e., bitwise computational results can be reproduced, guarantees the reproduction of exactly the same results. Here we show the importance of bitwise identical reproducibility to Earth system modeling but the importance has not yet been widely recognized. Modeled mean climate states, variability and trends at different scales may be significantly changed or even lead to opposing results due to a slight change in the original simulation setting during a reproduction. Out of the large body of Earth system modeling publications, few thoroughly describe the whole original simulation setting. As a result, the reproduction of a particular simulation experiment by fellow scientists heavily depends on the interaction with the original authors, which is often inconvenient or even impossible. We anticipate bitwise identical reproducibility to be promoted as a worldwide standard, to guarantee the independent reproduction of simulation results and to further improve model development and scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a snow water equivalent model as part of the hydrological modeling system NewAge-JGrass. The model take in account of the main physical processes influencing the snow melting (precipitation form separation, melting and freezing modeling) coupled with the snowpack mass conservation equation. The snow melting depends not only on the air temperature but also on the radiation received by the pixel. The model is perfectly integrated in the NewAge-JGrass modeling system and uses many of its components such as shortwave radiation balance, krigings and automatic calibration algorithms. As all the NewAge-JGrass components, the presented model can be executed both in raster and in vector mode and the simulation time step can be daily, hourly or sub-hourly as the user needs. The model is applied on the Cache la Poudre river basin (CO, USA). Three are the applications presented in the paper. Firstly, the simulation of snow water equivalent in three different measurement stations is performed. Model parameters are calibrated and model performances are quantitatively computed by comparing simulated and measured snow water equivalent time series. Indices of goodness of fit such as Kling-Gupta Efficiency, Index of Agreement and Percentage Bias are computed. Secondly, the representativeness of the model parameters in different locations is discussed. Finally a raster mode application is performed: snow water equilvalent maps on the whole Cache la Poudre river are computed. In all the applications the model performance are satisfactory in term of goodness of fitting measured snow water equivalent time series. The integration of the model in the NewAge-JGrass system allows the used to o enjoy all the component of the system: input data computation, output maps visualizetion in the GIS JGrass, model parameters automatic calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasonable fracture criteria are crucial for the modeling of dynamic failure in computational spring lattice models. For experiments on the micro and on the meso scale exist successful criteria, which are based on the stress that a spring experiences. In this paper we test the applicability of these failure criteria to large scale models, where gravity plays an important role in addition to the externally applied deformation. The resulting brittle structures do not resemble the outcome predicted by fracture mechanics and geological observations. For this reason we derive an elliptical fracture criterion, which is based on the strain energy stored in a spring. Simulations using the new criterion result in realistic structures. It is another great advantage of this fracture model, that it can be combined with classic geological material parameters: the tensile strength σ0 and the shear cohesionτ0. While we tested the fracture model only for large scale structures, there is strong reason to believe that the model is equally applicable to lattice simulations on the micro and the meso scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose a probabilistic framework for an uncertainty quantification study of a carbon cycle model. A Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) study indicates the parameters and parameter couplings that are important at different times of the year for Quantities of Interest obtained with the Data Assimilation Linked Ecosystem Carbon (DALEC) model. We then employ a Bayesian approach to calibrate the parameters of DALEC using net ecosystem exchange observations at the Harvard Forest site. The calibration exercise is guided by GSA and by Fisher information matrix results that quantify the amount of information carried by the experimental data about specific model parameters. The calibration results are employed in the second part of the paper to assess the predictive skill of the model via posterior predictive checks. These checks show a better performance for the non-steady state model during the growing season compared to the one employing steady state assumptions. Overall, this study leads to a 40% improvement in the predictive skill of DALEC and highlights the importance of considering correlations in the model parameters as informed by the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient tropospheric deliquesced particles generally comprise a complex mixture of electrolytes, organic compounds, and water. Dynamic modeling of physical and chemical processes in this complex matrix is challenging. Thus, up-to-date multiphase chemistry models do generally not consider non-ideal solution effects. Therefore, the present study was aimed at the further development of the SPACCIM model to treat both complex multiphase chemistry and phase transfer processes considering newly non-ideality properties of concentrated aerosol solutions. The present paper describes firstly, the performed model development including (i) the kinetic implementation of the non ideality in the SPACCIM framework, (ii) the advancements in the coupling scheme of microphysics and multiphase chemistry and (iii) the required adjustments of the numerical schemes, especially in the sparse linear solver and the calculation of the Jacobian. Secondly, results of performed sensitivity investigations are outlined aiming at the evaluation of different activity coeffcient modules and the examination of the contributions of different intermolecular forces to the overall activity coeffcients. Finally, first results obtained with the new model framework are presented. The main product of the performed model development is the new kinetic model approach SPACCIM-SpactMod, which utilizes activities in reaction terms instead of aqueous concentrations. Based on an intercomparison of different activity coeffcient models and the comparison with experimental data, AIOMFAC was selected as base model and extended by additional interaction parameters from literature for mixed organic-inorganic systems. Moreover, the performance and the capability of the applied activity coeffcient module were evaluated by means of water activity measurements, literature data and results of other thermodynamic equilibrium models. Comprehensive comparison studies showed that the SpactMod (SPACCIM activity coeffcient module) is valuable to predict the thermodynamic behavior of complex mixtures of multicomponent atmospheric aerosol particles. First simulations with a detailed chemical mechanism have demonstrated the applicability of SPACCIM-SpactMod. The simulations have implied that the treatment of non-ideality should be mandatory for modeling multiphase chemistry processes in deliquesced particles. The modeled activity coeffcients implicate that turnovers of chemical processes in deliquesced particles can be both decreased and increased depending on the particular species involved in the reactions. For 5 key ions, activity coeffcients on the order of 0.1-0.8 and a strong dependency on the charge state as well as the RH conditions are modeled implicating a lowered chemical ion processing in concentrated solutions. In contrast, modeled activity coeffcients of organic compounds are partly >1 and suggest the possibility of an increased organic processing. Moreover, the model runs have shown noticeable differences in the 10 pH values calculated with and without consideration of non-ideality. On average, the predicted pH values of the simulations considering non-ideality are -0.27 and -0.44 pH units lower under 90 and 70% RH conditions, respectively. More comprehensive results of detailed SPACCIM-SpactMod studies on the multiphase processing in organic-inorganic mixtures of deliquesced particles are described in a companion paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the non-iteration dimensional-split semi-Lagrangian (NDSL) advection scheme is applied to the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) regional spectral model (RSM) to alleviate the Gibbs phenomenon. The Gibbs phe- nomenon is a problem wherein negative values of positive-definite quantities (e.g., moisture and tracers) are generated by the spectral space transformation in a spectral model system. To solve this problem, the spectral prognostic specific humidity and radioactive tracer advection scheme is replaced by the NDSL advection scheme, which considers advection of tracers in a grid system without spectral space transformations. A regional version of the NDSL is developed in this study and is applied to the RSM. Idealized experiments show that the regional version of the NDSL is successful. The model runs for an actual case study suggest that the NDSL can successfully advect radioactive tracers (iodine-131 and cesium-137) without noise from the Gibbs phenomenon. The NDSL can also remove negative specific humidity values produced in spectral calculations without losing detailed features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical model based on Radial Basis Function-generated Finite Differences (RBFFD) is developed for simulating the Global Electric Circuit (GEC) within the Earth's atmosphere, represented by a 3-D variable coefficient linear elliptic PDE in a sphericallyshaped volume 5 with the lower boundary being the Earth's topography and the upper boundary a sphere at 60 km. To our knowledge, this is (1) the first numerical model of the GEC to combine the Earth's topography with directly approximating the differential operators in 3-D space, and related to this (2) the first RBF-FD method to use irregular 3-D stencils for discretization to handle the topography. It benefits from the mesh-free 10 nature of RBF-FD, which is especially suitable for modeling high-dimensional problems with irregular boundaries. The RBF-FD elliptic solver proposed here makes no limiting assumptions on the spatial variability of the coefficients in the PDE (i.e. the conductivity profile), the right hand side forcing term of the PDE (i.e. distribution of current sources) or the geometry of the lower boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ent Terrestrial Biosphere Model (Ent TBM) is a mixed-canopy dynamic global vegetation model developed specifically for coupling with land surface hydrology and general circulation models (GCMs). This study describes the leaf phenology submodel implemented in the Ent TBM version 1.0.1.0.0, coupled to the carbon allocation scheme of the Ecosystem Demography (ED) model. The phenology submodel adopts a combination of responses to temperature (growing degree days and frost-hardening), soil moisture (linearity of stress with relative saturation), and radiation (light length). Growth of leaves, sapwood, fine roots, stem wood, and coarse roots is updated on a daily basis. We evaluate the performance in reproducing observed leaf seasonal growth as well as water and carbon fluxes for four plant functional types at five Fluxnet sites, with both observed and prognostic hydrology, and observed and prognostic seasonal leaf area index. The phenology submodel is able to capture the timing and magnitude of leafout and senescence for temperate broadleaf deciduous forest (Harvard Forest and Morgan-Monroe State Forest, US), C3 annual grassland (Vaira Ranch, US), and California oak savanna (Tonzi Ranch, US). For evergreen needleleaf forest (Hyytiäla, Finland), the phenology submodel captures the effect of frost-hardening of photosynthetic capacity on seasonal fluxes and leaf area. We address the importance of customizing parameter sets of vegetation soil moisture stress response to the particular land surface hydrology scheme. We identify model deficiencies that reveal important dynamics and parameter needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical simulations provide a considerable aid in studying past climates. Out of the various approaches taken in designing numerical climate experiments, transient simulations have been found to be the most optimal when it comes to comparison with proxy data. However, multi-millennial or longer simulations using fully coupled general circulation models are computationally very expensive such that acceleration techniques are frequently applied. In this study, we compare the results from transient simulations of the present and the last interglacial with and without acceleration of the orbital forcing, using the comprehensive coupled climate model CCSM3 (Community Climate System Model 3). Our study shows that in most parts of the world, the simulation of long-term variations in interglacial surface climate is not significantly affected by the use of the acceleration technique (with an acceleration factor 10) and, hence, large-scale model-data comparison of surface variables is not hampered. However, in high-latitude regions where the surface climate has a direct connection to the deep ocean, e.g. in the Southern Ocean or the Nordic Seas, acceleration-induced biases in sea-surface temperature evolution may occur with potential influence on the dynamics of the overlying atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

End to end modelling is an attractive and rapidly developing approach to solve developing strategies in marine systems science and management. However problems remain in the area of data matching and sub-model compatibility. A mechanism and novel interfacing system (Couplerlib) is presented whereby a physical/biogeochemical model (GOTM-ERSEM) that predicts dynamics of the lower trophic level (LTL) organisms in marine ecosystems is coupled to a dynamic ecosystem model (Ecosim) that predicts food-web interactions among higher trophic level (HTL) organisms. Coupling is achieved by means of a bespoke interface which handles the system incompatibilities between the models and a more generic Couplerlib library which uses metadata descriptions in extensible mark-up language (XML) to marshal data between groups, paying attention to functional group mappings and compatibility of units between models. In addition, within Couplerlib, models can be coupled across networks by means of socket mechanisms. As a demonstration of this approach, a food web model (Ecopath with Ecosim, EwE) and a physical/biogeochemical model (GOTM-ERSEM) representing the North Sea ecosystem were joined with Couplerlib. The output from GOTM-ERSEM varies between years dependent on oceanographic and meteorological conditions. Although inter-annual variability was clearly present, there was always the tendency for an annual cycle consisting of a peak of diatoms in spring, followed by (less nutritious) flagellates and dinoflagellates through the summer resulting in an early summer peak in the mesozooplankton biomass. Pelagic productivity, predicted by the LTL model, was highly seasonal with little winter food for the higher trophic levels. The Ecosim model was originally based on the assumption of constant annual inputs and, consequently, when coupled, pelagic species suffered population loss over the winter months. By contrast, benthic populations were more stable (although the benthic linkage modelled was purely at the detritus level). The coupled model was used to examine long term effects of environmental change, and showed the system to be nutrient limited, relatively unaffected by forecast climate change, especially in the benthos. The stability of an Ecosim formulation for large higher tropic level food webs is discussed and it is concluded that this kind of coupled model formulation is better for examining the effects of long term environmental change than short term perturbations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a new mathematical model for volcanic plumes, named PlumeMoM, is presented. The model describes the steady-state 1-D dynamics of the plume in a 3-D coordinate system, accounting for continuous variability in particle distribution of the pyroclastic mixture ejected at the vent. Volcanic plumes are composed of pyroclastic particles of many different sizes ranging from a few microns up to several centimeters and more. Proper description of such a multiparticle nature is crucial when quantifying changes in grain-size distribution along the plume and, therefore, for better characterization of source conditions of ash dispersal models. The new model is based on the method of moments, which allows description of the pyroclastic mixture dynamics not only in the spatial domain but also in the space of properties of the continuous size-distribution of the particles. This is achieved by formulation of fundamental transport equations for the multiparticle mixture with respect to the different moments of the grain-size distribution. Different formulations, in terms of the distribution of the particle number, as well as of the mass distribution expressed in terms of the Krumbein log scale, are also derived. Comparison between the new moments-based formulation and the classical approach, based on the discretization of the mixture in N discrete phases, shows that the new model allows the same results to be obtained with a significantly lower computational cost (particularly when a large number of discrete phases is adopted). Application of the new model, coupled with uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analyses, enables investigation of the response of four key output variables (mean and standard deviation (SD) of the grain-size distribution at the top of the plume, plume height and amount of mass lost by the plume during the ascent) to changes in the main input parameters (mean and SD) characterizing the pyroclastic mixture at the base of the plume. Results show that, for the range of parameters investigated, the grain-size distribution at the top of the plume is remarkably similar to that at the base and that the plume height is only weakly affected by the parameters of the grain distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In atmospheric modelling applications the aerosol particle size distribution is commonly represented by modal approach, in which particles in different size ranges are described with log-normal modes within predetermined size ranges. Such method in- cludes numerical reallocation of particles from a mode to another for example during particle growth, leading to potentially artificial changes in the aerosol size distribution. In this study we analysed how this reallocation affects climatologically relevant parameters: cloud droplet number concentration, aerosol-cloud interaction coefficient and light extinction coefficient. We compared these parameters between a modal model with and without reallocation routines, and a high resolution sectional model that was considered as a reference model. We analysed the relative differences of the parameters in different experiments that were designed to cover a wide range of dynamic aerosol processes occurring in the atmosphere. According to our results, limiting the allowed size ranges of the modes and the following numerical remapping of the distribution by reallocation, leads on average to underestimation of cloud droplet number concentration (up to 100 %) and overestimation of light extinction (up to 20 %). The analysis of aerosol first indirect effect is more complicated as the ACI parameter can be either over- or underestimated by the reallocating model, depending on the conditions. However, for example in the case of atmospheric new particle formation events followed by rapid particle growth, the reallocation can cause around average 10% overestimation of the ACI parameter. Thus it is shown that the reallocation affects the ability of a model to estimate aerosol climate effects accurately, and this should be taken into account when using and developing aerosol models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the development of the Adjoint of the Global Eulerian-Lagrangian Coupled Atmospheric (A-GELCA) model that consists of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) model as an Eulerian three-dimensional transport model (TM), and FLEXPART (FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model) as the Lagrangian plume diffusion model (LPDM). The tangent and adjoint components of the Eulerian model were constructed directly from the original NIES TM code using an automatic differentiation tool known as TAF (Transformation of Algorithms in Fortran; http://www.FastOpt.com), with additional manual pre- and post-processing aimed at improving the performance of the computing, including MPI (Message Passing Interface). As results, the adjoint of Eulerian model is discrete. Construction of the adjoint of the Lagrangian component did not require any code modification, as LPDMs are able to track a significant number of particles back in time and thereby calculate the sensitivity of observations to the neighboring emissions areas. Eulerian and Lagrangian adjoint components were coupled at the time boundary in the global domain. The results are verified using a series of test experiments. The forward simulation shown the coupled model is effective in reproducing the seasonal cycle and short-term variability of CO2 even in the case of multiple limiting factors, such as high uncertainty of fluxes and the low resolution of the Eulerian model. The adjoint model demonstrates the high accuracy compared to direct forward sensitivity calculations and fast performance. The developed adjoint of the coupled model combines the flux conservation and stability of an Eulerian discrete adjoint formulation with the flexibility, accuracy, and high resolution of a Lagrangian backward trajectory formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the proliferation of geophysical models, particularly climate models, the increasing resolution of their spatiotemporal estimates of Earth system processes, and the desire to easily share results with collaborators, there is a genuine need for tools to manage, aggregate, visualize, and share datasets. We present a new, web-based software tool - the Carbon Data Explorer - that provides these capabilities for gridded geophysical datasets. While originally developed for visualizing carbon flux, this tool can accommodate any time-varying, spatially explicit scientific dataset, particularly NASA Earth system science Level III products. In addition, the tool's open-source licensing and web presence facilitate distributed scientific visualization, comparison with other datasets and uncertainty estimates, and data publishing and distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of model complexity has been lively debated in environmental sciences as well as in the forest modelling community. Simple models are less input demanding and their calibration involves a lower number of parameters, but they might be suitable only at local scale. In this work we calibrated a simplified ecosystem process model (PRELES) to data from multiple sites and we tested if PRELES can be used at regional scale to estimate the carbon and water fluxes of Boreal conifer forests. We compared a multi-site (M-S) with site-specific (S-S) calibrations. Model calibrations and evaluations were carried out by the means of the Bayesian method; Bayesian calibration (BC) and Bayesian model comparison (BMC) were used to quantify the uncertainty in model parameters and model structure. To evaluate model performances BMC results were combined with more classical analysis of model-data mismatch (M-DM). Evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary production (GPP) measurements collected in 10 sites of Finland and Sweden were used in the study. Calibration results showed that similar estimates were obtained for the parameters at which model outputs are most sensitive. No significant differences were encountered in the predictions of the multi-site and site-specific versions of PRELES with exception of a site with agricultural history (Alkkia). Although PRELES predicted GPP better than evapotranspiration, we concluded that the model can be reliably used at regional scale to simulate carbon and water fluxes of Boreal forests. Our analyses underlined also the importance of using long and carefully collected flux datasets in model calibration. In fact, even a single site can provide model calibrations that can be applied at a wider spatial scale, since it covers a wide range of variability in climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Michaelis-Menten kinetics and the reverse Michaelis-Menten kinetics are two popular mathematical formulations used in many land biogeochemical models to describe how microbes and plants would respond to changes in substrate abundance. However, the criteria of when to use which of the two are often ambiguous. Here I show that these two kinetics are special approximations to the Equilibrium Chemistry Approximation kinetics, which is the first order approximation to the quadratic kinetics that solves the equation of enzyme-substrate complex exactly for a single enzyme single substrate biogeochemical reaction with the law of mass action and the assumption of quasi-steady-state for the enzyme-substrate complex and that the product genesis from enzyme-substrate complex is much slower than the equilibration between enzyme-substrate complexes, substrates and enzymes. In particular, I showed that the derivation of the Michaelis-Menten kinetics does not consider the mass balance constraint of the substrate, and the reverse Michaelis-Menten kinetics does not consider the mass balance constraint of the enzyme, whereas both of these constraints are taken into account in the Equilibrium Chemistry Approximation kinetics. By benchmarking against predictions from the quadratic kinetics for a wide range of substrate and enzyme concentrations, the Michaelis-Menten kinetics was found to persistently under-predict the normalized sensitivity ∂ ln v / ∂ ln k2+ of the reaction velocity v with respect to the maximum product genesis rate k2+, persistently over-predict the normalized sensitivity ∂ ln v / ∂ ln k1+ of v with respect to the intrinsic substrate affinity k1+, persistently over-predict the normalized sensitivity ∂ ln v / ∂ ln [ E ]T of v with respect the total enzyme concentration [ E ]T and persistently under-predict the normalized sensitivity ∂ ln v / ∂ ln [ S ]T of v with respect to the total substrate concentration [ S ]T. Meanwhile, the reverse Michaelis-Menten kinetics persistently under-predicts ∂ ln v / ∂ ln k2+ and ∂ ln v / ∂ ln [ E ]T, and persistently over-predicts ∂ ln v / ∂ ln k1+ and ∂ ln v / ∂ ln [ S ]T. In contrast, the Equilibrium Chemistry Approximation kinetics always gives consistent predictions of ∂ ln v / ∂ ln k2+, ∂ ln v / ∂ ln k1+, ∂ ln v / ∂ ln [ E ]T and ∂ ln v / ∂ ln [ S ]T. Since the Equilibrium Chemistry Approximation kinetics includes the advantages from both the Michaelis-Menten kinetics and the reverse Michaelis-Menten kinetics and it is applicable for almost the whole range of substrate and enzyme abundances, soil biogeochemical modelers therefore no longer need to choose when to use the Michaelis-Menten kinetics or the reverse Michaelis-Menten kinetics. I expect removing this choice ambiguity will make it easier to formulate more robust and consistent land biogeochemical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present the validation of the fluid dynamic solver presented in part one of this work (von Boetticher et al., 2015), simulating laboratory-scale and large-scale debrisflow experiments. The material properties of the experiments, including water content, sand content, clay content and its mineral composition, and gravel content and its friction angle, were known. We show that given these measured properties, a single free model parameter is sufficient for calibration, and a range of experiments with different material compositions can be reproduced by the model without recalibration. The model validation focuses on different case studies illustrating the sensitivity of debris flows to water and clay content, channel curvature, channel roughness and the angle of repose of the gravel. We characterize the accuracy of the model using experimental observations of flow head positions, front velocities, run-out patterns and basal pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses two new versions of FAMOUS, which plays an important role in filling hierarchy of climate models. It is informed that carbon cycle parameters of FAMOUS model use a perturbed physics ensemble technique. It is informed that in comparion to previous versions of FAMOUS, these new models have improved climatologies of surface and tropospheric air temperature and precipitation.

The article offers information on the SOILR package, version 1.0. It states that SOILR, an open source system, is a modeling structure containing functions and tools for soil organic matter decomposition model. It says that a linear system of differential equations represents organic matter decomposition in the system. It concludes that the model enables the trials of several hypotheses on soil structure and function.

The article discusses a research study which examines several semi-Lagrangian methods for air pollution models. The study aims to determine the best semi-Lagrangian approach based on accuracy and local mass conservation. Findings reveal that the said schemes failed to outperform the accurate space derivative (ASD)approach used in Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model (DEHM) with regards to accuracy.

In the aerosol-climate model ECHAM6-HAM2, dust source activation (DSA) observations from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite are proposed to replace the original source area parameterization over the Sahara Desert. The new setup is tested in nudged simulations for the period 2007 to 2008. The evaluation is based on comparisons to dust emission events inferred from MSG dust index imagery, AERONET sun photometer observations, and satellite retrievals of aerosol optical thickness (AOT). The model results agree well with AERONET measurements. Good correlations between model results and MSG-SEVIRI dust AOT as well as Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) AOT indicate that also the spatial dust distribution is well reproduced. ECHAM6-HAM2 computes a more realistic geographical distribution and up to 20 % higher annual Saharan dust emissions, using the MSG-based source map. The representation of dust AOT is partly improved in the southern Sahara and Sahel. In addition, the spatial variability is increased towards a better agreement with observations depending on the season. Thus, using the MSG DSA map can help to circumvent the issue of uncertain soil input parameters. An important issue remains the need to improve the model representation of moist convection and stable nighttime conditions. Compared to sub-daily DSA information from MSG-SEVIRI and results from a regional model, ECHAM6-HAM2 notably underestimates the important fraction of morning dust events by the breakdown of the nocturnal low-level jet, while a major contribution is from afternoon-to-evening emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new approach for modeling photolysis rates (J values) in atmospheres with fractional cloud cover has been developed and implemented as Cloud-J - a multi-scattering eight-stream radiative transfer model for solar radiation based on Fast-J. Using observed statistics for the vertical correlation of cloud layers, Cloud-J 7.3 provides a practical and accurate method for modeling atmospheric chemistry. The combination of the new maximum-correlated cloud groups with the integration over all cloud combinations represented by four quadrature atmospheres produces mean J values in an atmospheric column with root-mean-square errors of 4% or less compared with 10-20% errors using simpler approximations. Cloud-J is practical for chemistry-climate models, requiring only an average of 2.8 Fast-J calls per atmosphere, vs. hundreds of calls with the correlated cloud groups, or 1 call with the simplest cloud approximations. Another improvement in modeling J values, the treatment of volatile organic compounds with pressure-dependent cross sections is also incorporated into Cloud-J. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a suite of new climate model experiment designs for the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). This set of experiments, named GeoMIP6 (to be consistent with the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6), builds on the previous GeoMIP simulations, and has been expanded to address several further important topics, including key uncertainties in extreme events, the use of geoengineering as part of a portfolio of responses to climate change, and the relatively new idea of cirrus cloud thinning to allow more longwave radiation to escape to space. We discuss experiment designs, as well as the rationale for those designs, showing preliminary results from individual models when available. We also introduce a new feature, called the GeoMIP Testbed, which provides a platform for simulations that will be performed with a few models and subsequently assessed to determine whether the proposed experiment designs will be adopted as core (Tier 1) GeoMIP experiments. This is meant to encourage various stakeholders to propose new targeted experiments that address their key open science questions, with the goal of making GeoMIP more relevant to a broader set of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study conductd to evaluate the cloud-top height based parameterization for global chemistry models and cloud-resolving models. It also discusses methods used in this study, which includes formulation and overview of parameterization as well as implications of various statistics obtained from validation.

The article discusses a study which presents results of a newly developed isotope scheme within the ECHAM5-JSBACH model, which has been developed by combining two separate components, the atmosphere model ECHAM5 and the land surface scheme "Jena Scheme for Biosphere-Atmosphere Interaction in Hamburg" (JSBACH). It is noted that ECHAM5 is an Atmosphere General Circulation Model (AGCM)and JSBACH model calculates terrestrial boundary conditions for ECHAM5 over the land surface.

The article offers information on the two-way online coupled system COSTRICE, which comprises of three models of atmosphere, ocean and sea ice. It is stated that these three models are the atmospheric Regional Climatic Model (RCM) CCLM, the ocean model TRIMNP and 25 the sea ice model CICE. It is informed that central issues surrounding COSTRICE are coupling techniques, time and exchanged fields.

The article presents information related to the implementation and validation of Fast-JX interactive photolysis scheme into Great Britain's Met Offices Unified Model (MetUM) chemistry climate model. It is stated that the scheme intends to improve the modelled photolysis frequencies in comparison to other models. It is noted that the interactive photolysis provide details of interactions between the atmosphere and its constituents.

The article discusses a study conducted to evaluate the carbon cycle components of the Norwegian Earth 20 System Model (NorESM), which was developed on the basis of various components of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4). It is informed that the land carbon cycle model in NorESM provides the general pattern of the vegetation carbon content and ocean carbon cycle model in NorESM performs well in simulating observed temperature amplitude and spatial variability.

The article discusses a research study which introduces the new aerosol microphysics submodel MADE-IN with the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry global model (EMAC). The said approach describes three classes of particles and predicts the size distribution and chemical composition of these classes. Findings reveal that the model is an efficient tool for the study of concentration and composition of potential atmospheric ice nuclei.

We present an overview of the modelling of particle number concentrations (PNC's) in five major European cities, namely Helsinki, Oslo, London, Rotterdam and Athens, in 2008. Novel emission inventories of particle numbers have been compiled both on urban and European scales. We use atmospheric dispersion modelling for PNC's in the five target cities and on a European scale, and evaluate the predicted results against available measured concentrations. The concentrations of PN in the selected cities were mostly influenced by the emissions originated from local vehicular traffic; however, in some of the cities, also harbour and airport activities were significant. The highest values of the predicted PNC's were higher in the megacities, London and Athens, and also in Rotterdam, whereas these were lower in Helsinki and Oslo. It was numerically evaluated that the influence of coagulation and dry deposition on the predicted PNC's was substantial for urban background in Oslo. The predicted and measured annual average PNC's in four cities agreed within approximately ⩽36% (measured as fractional biases), except for one traffic station in London. The indexes of agreement (IA) for the comparisons of hourly measured and predicted time-series in Oslo and Helsinki ranged from 0.75 to 0.79. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biosphere-atmosphere interactions play a critical role in governing atmospheric composition, mediating the concentration of key species such as ozone and aerosol, thereby influencing air quality and climate. The exchange of reactive trace gases and their oxidation products (both gas and particle phase) is of particular importance in this process. The FORCAsT (FORest Canopy AtmoSphere Transfer) one-dimensional model is developed to study the emission, deposition, chemistry and transport of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and their oxidation products in the atmosphere within and above the forest canopy. We include an equilibrium partitioning scheme, making FORCAsT one of the few canopy models currently capable of simulating the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) from VOC oxidation in a forest environment. We evaluate the capability of FORCAsT to reproduce observed concentrations of key gas-phase species and report modeled SOA concentrations within and above a mixed forest at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) during the Community Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions Experiment (CABINEX) field campaign in summer 2009. We examine the impact of two different gas-phase chemical mechanisms on modelled concentrations of short-lived primary emissions, such as isoprene and monoterpenes, and their oxidation products. While the two chemistry schemes perform similarly under high-NOx conditions, they diverge at the low levels of NOx at UMBS. We identify peroxy radical and alkyl nitrate chemistry as the key causes of the differences, highlighting the importance of this chemistry in understanding the fate of biogenic VOCs (bVOCs) for both the modelling and measurement communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A community diagnostics and performance metrics tool for the evaluation of Earth System Models (ESMs) has been developed that allows for routine comparison of single or multiple models, either against predecessor versions or against observations. The priority of the effort so far has been to target specific scientific themes focusing on selected Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), a range of known systematic biases common to ESMs, such as coupled tropical climate variability, monsoons, Southern Ocean processes, continental dry biases and soil hydrology-climate interactions, as well as atmospheric CO2 budgets, tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, and tropospheric aerosols. The tool is being developed in such a way that additional analyses can easily be added. A set of standard namelists for each scientific topic reproduces specific sets of diagnostics or performance metrics that have demonstrated their importance in ESM evaluation in the peer-reviewed literature. The Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) is a community effort open to both users and developers encouraging open exchange of diagnostic source code and evaluation results from the CMIP ensemble. This will facilitate and improve ESM evaluation beyond the state-of-the-art and aims at supporting such activities within the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and at individual modelling centres. Ultimately, we envisage running the ESMValTool alongside the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) as part of a more routine evaluation of CMIP model simulations while utilizing observations available in standard formats (obs4MIPs) or provided by the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IMAGE-Global Nutrient Model (GNM) is a global distributed spatially explicit model using hydrology as the basis for describing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) delivery to surface water and transport and in-stream retention in rivers, lakes, wetlands and reservoirs. It is part of the integrated assessment model IMAGE, which studies the interaction between society and the environment over prolonged time periods. In the IMAGE-GNM model, grid cells receive water with dissolved and suspended N and P from upstream grid cells; inside grid cells, N and P are delivered to water bodies via diffuse sources (surface runoff, shallow and deep groundwater, riparian zones; litterfall in floodplains; atmospheric deposition) and point sources (wastewater); N and P retention in a water body is calculated on the basis of the residence time of the water and nutrient uptake velocity; subsequently, water and nutrients are transported to downstream grid cells. Differences between model results and observed concentrations for a range of global rivers are acceptable given the global scale of the uncalibrated model. Sensitivity analysis with data for the year 2000 showed that runoff is a major factor for N and P delivery, retention and river export. For both N and P, uptake velocity and all factors used to compute the subgrid in-stream retention are important for total in-stream retention and river export. Soil N budgets, wastewater and all factors determining litterfall in floodplains are important for N delivery to surface water. For P the factors that determine the P content of the soil (soil P content and bulk density) are important factors for delivery and river export. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful modelling of the observed precipitation, a very important variable for a wide range of climate applications, continues to be one of the major challenges that climate scientists face today. When the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to dynamically downscale the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) over the Indo-Pacific region, with analysis (grid-point) nudging, it is found that the cumulus scheme used, Betts-Miller-Janjić (BMJ), produces excessive rainfall suggesting that it has to be modified for this region. Experimentation has shown that the cumulus precipitation is not very sensitive to changes in the cloud efficiency but varies greatly in response to modifications of the temperature and humidity reference profiles. A new version of the scheme, denominated "modified BMJ" scheme, where the humidity reference profile is more moist, was developed and in tropical belt simulations it was found to give a better estimate of the observed precipitation, as given by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42 dataset, than the default BMJ scheme for the whole tropics and both monsoon seasons. In fact, in some regions the model even outperforms CFSR. The advantage of modifying the BMJ scheme to produce better rainfall estimates lies in the final dynamical consistency of the rainfall with other dynamical and thermodynamical variables of the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first pan-European kilometre-scale atmospheric chemistry simulation is introduced. The continental-scale air pollution episode of January 2009 is modelled with the CHIMERE offline chemistry-transport model with a massive grid of 2 million horizontal points, performed on 2000 CPU of a high performance computing system hosted by the Research and Technology Computing Center at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CCRT/CEA). Besides the technical challenge, we find that model biases are significantly reduced, especially over urban areas. The high resolution grid also allows revisiting the contribution of individual city plumes to the European burden of pollution, providing new insights for designing air pollution control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimization of land surface models has been very challenging due to the increasing complexity of such models. Typical parameter calibration techniques often limit the solution of the spatiotemporal discrepancy in the modeling performance levels especially for regional applications. Thus, in this study, an attempt was made to perform schemebased model optimization by designing a framework for coupling a micro-genetic algorithm (micro-GA) with the Noah land surface model that has multiple physics options (Noah-MP). Micro-GA controls the scheme selections in 10 different land surface parameterization fields in Noah-MP in order to extract the optimal scheme combination for a certain region. This coupling framework was successfully applied to the optimization of the surface water partitioning in the Korean Peninsula, promising not only the effectiveness of the scheme-based optimization but also model diagnosis capability by exploring the scheme sensitivity during the micro-GA evolution process. Then, the method was applied to four different regions in East Asia that have different climatic characteristics. The results indicate that (1) the optimal scheme combinations vary with the regions, (2) schemes related to the surface water partitioning are important for the modeling accuracy, and (3) specialized post-parameter optimization for each region may be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a feasibility study, the potential of proxy data for the temperature and salinity during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, about 19 000 to 23 000 yr before present) in constraining the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in a general ocean circulation model was explored. The proxy data were simulated by drawing data from four different model simulations at the ocean sediment core locations of the Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean surface (MARGO) project and perturbing these data with realistic noise estimates. The results suggest that our method has the potential of providing estimates of the past strength of the AMOC even from sparse data, but in general paleo-sea surface temperature data without additional prior knowledge about the ocean state during the LGM is not adequate to constrain the model. On the one hand, additional salinity data in the deep ocean and at the sea surface are shown to be highly important in estimating the LGM circulation and as expected, reducing proxy-data errors improves the solutions. Whereas increasing the amount of surface data alone does not appear to be enough for better estimates. Finally, better initial guesses to start the state estimation procedure from greatly improve the performance of the method. Indeed, with a sufficiently good first guess, just the sea-surface temperature data from the MARGO project appear sufficient for reliable estimates of the strength of the AMOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of vegetation dynamics that are designed for application at spatial scales larger than individual forest gaps suffer from several limitations. Typically, either a population average approximation is used that results in unrealistic tree allometry and forest stand structure, or models have a high computational demand because they need to simulate both a series of age-based cohorts and a number of replicate patches to account for stochastic gap-scale disturbances. The detail required by the latter method increases the number of calculations by two to three orders of magnitude compared to the less realistic population average approach. In an effort to increase the efficiency of dynamic vegetation models without sacrificing realism, and to explore patterns of spatial scaling in forests, we developed a new method for simulating stand-replacing disturbances that is both accurate and 10-50x faster than approaches that use replicate patches. The GAPPARD (approximating GAP model results with a Probabilistic Approach to account for stand Replacing Disturbances) method works by postprocessing the output of deterministic, undisturbed simulations of a cohort-based vegetation model by deriving the distribution of patch ages at any point in time on the basis of a disturbance probability. With this distribution, the expected value of any output variable can be calculated from the output values of the deterministic undisturbed run at the time corresponding to the patch age. To account for temporal changes in model forcing, e.g., as a result of climate change, GAPPARD performs a series of deterministic simulations and interpolates between the results in the postprocessing step. We integrated the GAPPARD method in the forest models LPJ-GUESS and TreeM-LPJ, and evaluated these in a series of simulations along an altitudinal transect of an inner-alpine valley. With GAPPARD applied to LPJ-GUESS results were insignificantly different from the output of the original model LPJ-GUESS using 100 replicate patches, but simulation time was reduced by approximately the factor 10. Our new method is therefore highly suited rapidly approximating LPJ-GUESS results, and provides the opportunity for future studies over large spatial domains, allows easier parameterization of tree species, faster identification of areas of interesting simulation results, and comparisons with large-scale datasets and forest models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a high-dimensional model reduction approach to predict the soil-surface C18oo flux. It is stated that the approach represents complex coupled biogeochemical processes in regional and global climate models and could be used to characterize subgrid-scale spatial heterogeneity.

The article presents a study that determines the capabilities of the Earth System Model (ESM) used in climate modeling in general and computing applications. It outlines the method of the study that examines the different features of the system and its ability to communicate and regrid data. It also discusses the characteristics of the different approach of the system, as well as its future challenges that will arise from the increasing complexity of scientific problems.

The article focuses on the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature version 2.1 (MEGAN2.1) which estimates fluxes of 147 biogenic compounds between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere using mechanistic algorithms. It says that emission estimates from MEGAN2.1 are within the range of estimates reported by other approaches. Moreover, the offline version of MEGAN2.1 driving variables and source code is available from http://acd.ucar.edu/guenther/MEGAN/MEGAN.htm.

The article presents a study on the significance of an erodible material's surface size distribution towards Dust Entrainment and Deposition scheme (DEAD) improvement. It mentions that the importance of its modification is showed through the realization of comparative and sensitivity analyses in zero dimensions (0-D) and three dimensions (3-D). It also notes its good representation of dust source emission and small variations in both dimensions.

The article presents a study on a new building energy model (BEM) in combination with the Town Energy Budget (TEB) scheme. It mentions its possible representation towards the effects and systems of buildings on urban climate as well as estimation on their energy consumption. It also notes its consideration of a single thermal zone where the thermal inertia of the structure's material is made up by a generic thermal mass.

The article discusses the experimental design and initial results relevant to the simulation of the mid-Pliocene warm period (MPWP) using MIROC, an atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (AOGCM). It relates that simulating MPWP is part of the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP). It identifies MPWP as the period in earth's history in which global increase in temperature had reached the predicted magnitude for the late 21st century duration.

The article provides information on the ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model which is coupled to the ocean general circulation (GCM) model MPIOM using the Modular Earth Submodel Sytem (MESSy) interface. It reveals that the coupling method is tested for different model configurations, proving to be very flexible in terms of parallel decomposition. In addition, the climate model simulation (CMIP3) performed with EMAC-MPIOM show that the results are comparable to those of other GCM.

The article discusses a research study which introduces the Market Allocation (MARKAL) method for anthropogenic emission scenarios. The said approach focuses on energy use and production because these factors are the main sources of air pollution and uses two emission scenarios. Findings reveal that both scenarios demonstrate significant reductions in air pollutant emissions.

I present a method for developing extensible and modular computational models without sacrificing serial or parallel performance or source code readability. By using a generic simulation cell method I show that it is possible to combine several distinct computational models to run in the same computational grid without requiring any modification of existing code. This is an advantage for the development and testing of computational modeling software as each submodel can be developed and tested independently and subsequently used without modification in a more complex coupled program. Support for parallel programming is also provided by allowing users to select which simulation variables to transfer between processes via a Message Passing Interface library. This allows the communication strategy of a program to be formalized by explicitly stating which variables must be transferred between processes for the correct functionality of each submodel and the entire program. The generic simulation cell class presented here requires a C++ compiler that supports variadic templates which were standardized in 2011 (C++11). The code is available at: https://github.com/nasailja/gensimcell for everyone to use, study, modify and redistribute; those that do are kindly requested to cite this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on OsloCTM3, the updated version of global chemical transport model Oslo CTM2. The updated version features a faster transport scheme, an improved wet scavenging scheme for large scale rain, and updated photolysis rates. Moreover, treatment of polar cap transport and horizontal distribution of lightning are presented.

The article presents a study which discusses the application of a Eulerian-Lagrangian model to simulate atmospheric carbon dioxide transport simulations. It relates that the said model is a combination of a Lagrangian particle dispersion model coupled to a global atmospheric tracer transport model. The study reveals the potential of the Eulerian-Lagrangian model to simulate high-frequency atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at many locations worldwide.

The article presents a study which focuses on creating a simulation of the extra-tropical climate variability in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) using a combined atmosphere-ocean model. It relates that the said model combines the idealized quasi-geographic model of SH's wintertime atmospheric circulation with a general ocean circulation model. It notes that the model's development is motivated by the need to determine the role of atmosphere-ocean interaction in shaping climate variability.