Anthropogenic Land Cover Change Experiments in the CCSM

• Main Authors: Johannes Feddema, Gordon Bonan
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.492.6456; http://www.stat.duke.edu/~fei/samsi/NCARworkshop/Abstract - Feddema.pdf

The Community Climate System Model (CCSM) is comprised of four sub models to simulate the atmosphere (Community Atmosphere Model- CAM), the ocean (Parallel Ocean Program-POP), sea ice surface (Community Sea Ice Model – CSIM), and the terrestrial surface (Community Land Model – CLM). Anthropogenic forcings of climate change can be divided into those affecting atmospheric composition (e.g., greenhouse gases and aerosols), simulated in the CAM, and those that affect land cover, simulated in the CLM. Anthropogenic land cover change alters energy, water, and carbon exchanges between land and atmosphere and in doing so alters climate. The first part of this session will focus on how these processes are simulated in the CLM, and how similar land cover changes in different environments can result in different climate changes Part 2. Simulation scenarios and statistical considerations To simulate human land cover change in the CLM, datasets are developed to show how natural vegetation is replaced by croplands and grazing lands. Simulations can be categorized as equilibrium simulations where the model reaches equilibrium conditions with a fixed land cover type. Alternatively, transient simulations simulate climate through time with changing