Results of a CLM4 Land Surface Simulation over China using a Multisource Integrated Land Cover Dataset

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, the high-accuracy multisource integrated Chinese land cover (MICLCover) dataset was used in version 4 of the Community Land Model (CLM4) to assess how the new land cover information affected land surface simulation over China. Compared to the default land cover dataset in CLM4, the MICL data indicated lower values for bare soil (14.6% reduction), needleleaf tree (3.6%), and broadleaf tree (1.9%); higher values for shrub cover (1.8% increase), grassland (9.9%), cropland (5.0%), glaciers (0.5%), lakes (1.6%), and wetland (1.1%); and unchanged for urban areas. Two comparative CLM4 simulations were conducted for the 33-yr period from 1972 to 2004, one using the MICL dataset and the other using the default dataset. The results revealed that the MICL data produced a 0.3% lower mean annual surface albedo over China than the original data. The largest contributor to the reduced value was semiarid regions (2.1% reduction). The MICL-data albedo value agreed more closely with observations (MOD...