The North American Carbon Program Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project: Environmental driver data

Yaxing Wei, ORNL, weiy@ornl.gov (Presenter)
Shishi Liu, ORNL, lius2@ornl.gov
Deborah Nicole Huntzinger, Northern Arizona University, deborah.huntzinger@nau.edu
Anna M Michalak, Carnegie Institution for Science, michalak@stanford.edu
Nicolas Viovy, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et l'Environnement, nicolas.viovy@lsce.ipsl.fr
Wilfred M. Post, University of Tennessee Knoxville, mpost3116@gmail.com
Christopher R Schwalm, Northern Arizona University, christopher.schwalm@nau.edu
Kevin M Schaefer, National Snow and Ice Data Center, kevin.schaefer@nsidc.org
Andrew R Jacobson, University of Colorado and NOAA Earth System Research Lab, andy.jacobson@noaa.gov
Chaoqun Lu, Auburn University, czl0003@auburn.edu
Hanqin Tian, Auburn University, tianhan@auburn.edu
Daniel Ricciuto, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ricciutodm@ornl.gov
Robert B. Cook, Environmental Sciences Division, ORNL, cookrb@ornl.gov
Jiafu Mao, ORNL, maoj@ornl.gov
Xiaoying Shi, ORNL, shix@ornl.gov

Ecosystems are important and dynamic components of the global carbon cycle, and terrestrial biospheric models (TBMs) are crucial tools to advance our understanding of how terrestrial carbon is stored and exchanged with the atmosphere across a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Improving TBM model skills, and quantifying and reducing their estimation uncertainties, pose significant challenges. The Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project (MsTMIP) is a formal multi-scale and multi-model intercomparison effort set up to address these challenges. The MsTMIP protocol prescribes standardized environmental driver data that are shared among model teams to facilitate model-model and model-observation comparisons (Huntzinger et al., doi:10.5194/gmd-6-2121-2013). This poster describes the global and North American environmental driver data sets (Wei et al., doi:10.5194/gmd-7-2875-2014) prepared for the MsTMIP activity to both support their use in MsTMIP and make these data, along with the processes used in selecting/processing these data, accessible to a broader audience. Based on project needs and lessons learned from past model intercomparison activities, we compiled climate, atmospheric CO2 concentrations, nitrogen deposition, land-use and land-cover change (LULCC), C3/C4 grasses fractions, major crops, phenology, and soil data into a standard format for global (0.5° × 0.5° resolution) and regional (North American, 0.25° × 0.25° resolution) simulations. In order to meet the needs of MsTMIP, improvements were made to several of the original environmental data sets, by improving the quality, and/or changing their spatial and temporal coverage, and resolution. The resulting standardized model driver datasets are being used by over 20 different models participating in MsTMIP. The data are archived at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center to provide long-term data management and distribution: http://dx.doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1220.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  General Contributions   (Tue 4:35 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Cook, Bob: A Modeling and Synthesis Thematic Data Center for the North American Carbon Program ...details
• Cook, Bob: ORNL DAAC: Data Support for NACP Activities ...details
• Huntzinger, Deborah: The North American Carbon Program Multi-Scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project ...details
• Michalak, Anna: The North American Carbon Program Multi-Scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project ...details

Poster Location ID: 250