A Regional Climate System Model RegCM4-CLM4-CN-DV: Model Development, Validation and Sensitivity Tests
Abstract
In this study the Community Land Model-Carbon Nitrogen-Dynamic Vegetation model version 4 (CLM4-CN-DV) is synchronously coupled to the ICTP regional climate model version 4 (RegCM4) to develop a regional climate system model. The model can simulate the two-way interactions between climate and the natural terrestrial ecosystem at time scales ranging from seconds to decades and centuries. Using West Africa as a case study, we examine the performance of this coupled model in simulating the mean and past variability of the regional climate, in simulating terrestrial carbon fluxes, and in simulating the present-day vegetation distribution and function. Sensitivity tests focus on the impact of natural ecosystem feedback, particularly on the roles of carbon-based vegetation phenology and dynamic vegetation in the response of the regional climate system to land use and CO2 concentration changes.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.A33R..03W
- Keywords:
-
- 0426 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- 0439 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- 1637 GLOBAL CHANGE / Regional climate change