The land component of the global climate system with adequate spatial resolution. Final report, September 1, 1991--August 31, 1994

Abstract

The focus of the work done under this grant has been to couple global circulation models (in particular, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model Version 2 (CCM2)) to a land-surface model at a much finer mesh than that used for the atmospheric processes. The end objective has been to incorporate into the CHAMMP modeling system a state-of-the-art land model on a mesh independent of the atmospheric model resolution. Efforts have emphasized the following: development and graphical displays of the fine-mesh land surface boundary conditions; the data structures required to carry out integrations on the land fine-mesh; the physical parameterization required to diaggregate model precipitation; analyses of the NCAR 10-year control simulation of the frozen version of CM2/BATS; implementation of changes in the cloud optical properties to mitgate excess incident solar radiation and temperatures over middle latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere summer; prototype development of the CCM2/BASTS fine-mesh treatment.