Abstract
Abstract. The important role of fire in regulating vegetation community composition and contributions to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols make it a critical component of dynamic global vegetation models and Earth system models. Over 2 decades of development, a wide variety of model structures and mechanisms have been designed and incorporated into global fire models, which have been linked to different vegetation models. However, there has not yet been a systematic examination of how these different strategies contribute to model performance. Here we describe the structure of the first phase of the Fire Model Intercomparison Project (FireMIP), which for the first time seeks to systematically compare a number of models. By combining a standardized set of input data and model experiments with a rigorous comparison of model outputs to each other and to observations, we will improve the understanding of what drives vegetation fire, how it can best be simulated, and what new or improved observational data could allow better constraints on model behavior. In this paper, we introduce the fire models used in the first phase of FireMIP, the simulation protocols applied, and the benchmarking system used to evaluate the models. We have also created supplementary tables that describe, in thorough mathematical detail, the structure of each model.
Highlights
Several studies have suggested that recent increases in the incidence of wildfire reflect changes in climate (Running, 2006; Westerling et al, 2006)
We describe the structure of the first phase of the Fire Model Intercomparison Project (FireMIP), which for the first time seeks to systematically compare a number of models
The fact that fire affects so many aspects of the Earth system has provided a motivation for developing processbased representations of fire in dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) and Earth system models (ESMs)
Summary
Several studies have suggested that recent increases in the incidence of wildfire reflect changes in climate (Running, 2006; Westerling et al, 2006). The processes represented – and the forms these processes take – vary widely between global fire models These models generally capture the first-order patterns of burned area and emissions under modern conditions, biases exist in the simulations of seasonality and interannual variability. Literature reviews, sometimes in combination with regional burned area statistics extending back to the 1960s (e.g., Kasischke et al, 2002; Stocks et al, 2003) and/or simulation models, have been used to produce estimates of burned area and associated emissions going back to the beginning of the 20th century (Mouillot and Field, 2005; Mouillot et al, 2006; Schultz et al, 2008; Mieville et al, 2010) Both remote sensing data and historical reconstructions can be used to evaluate model performance, but the pre-1990s period – especially before the 1960s – is quite data-poor. We describe the protocol for the first stage of FireMIP: the baseline simulation for the period 1900–2013 and associated sensitivity experiments
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