Articles | Volume 14, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3215-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3215-2021
Development and technical paper
 | 
03 Jun 2021
Development and technical paper |  | 03 Jun 2021

Limitations of WRF land surface models for simulating land use and land cover change in Sub-Saharan Africa and development of an improved model (CLM-AF v. 1.0)

Timothy Glotfelty, Diana Ramírez-Mejía, Jared Bowden, Adrian Ghilardi, and J. Jason West

Related authors

Examining Spin-Up Behaviour within WRF Dynamical Downscaling Applications
Megan S. Mallard, Tanya Spero, Jared Bowden, Jeff Willison, Christopher G. Nolte, and Anna M. Jalowska
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2352,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2352, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
Applications of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Tropospheric Ozone Research
Sebastian H. M. Hickman, Makoto Kelp, Paul T. Griffiths, Kelsey Doerksen, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, Elyse A. Pennington, Gerbrand Koren, Fernando Iglesias-Suarez, Martin G. Schultz, Kai-Lan Chang, Owen R. Cooper, Alexander T. Archibald, Roberto Sommariva, David Carlson, Hantao Wang, J. Jason West, and Zhenze Liu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3739,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3739, 2025
Short summary
Intercomparison of global ground-level ozone datasets for health-relevant metrics
Hantao Wang, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, Haitong Zhe Sun, Zhen Qu, Xiang Liu, Antje Inness, Martin Schultz, Sabine Schröder, Marc Serre, and J. Jason West
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3723,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3723, 2025
Preprint archived
Short summary
EFFECT OF THE DELAY IN THE REPORTS OF COVID-19 CASES ON NEAR REAL-TIME CLUSTERS DETECTION
J-F. Mas, A. Pérez Vega, and A. Ghilardi
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-1-W2-2023, 457–462, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W2-2023-457-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W2-2023-457-2023, 2023
Spatiotemporally resolved emissions and concentrations of styrene, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (SBTEX) in the US Gulf region
Chi-Tsan Wang, Bok H. Baek, William Vizuete, Lawrence S. Engel, Jia Xing, Jaime Green, Marc Serre, Richard Strott, Jared Bowden, and Jung-Hun Woo
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5261–5279, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5261-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5261-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Atmospheric sciences
Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI) 2.0: an improved research and stakeholder tool for monitoring total methane emissions with high resolution worldwide using TROPOMI satellite observations
Lucas A. Estrada, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa Sulprizio, Hannah Nesser, Zichong Chen, Nicholas Balasus, Sarah E. Hancock, Megan He, James D. East, Todd A. Mooring, Alexander Oort Alonso, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Ilse Aben, Sabour Baray, Kevin W. Bowman, John R. Worden, Felipe J. Cardoso-Saldaña, Emily Reidy, and Daniel J. Jacob
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3311–3330, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3311-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3311-2025, 2025
Short summary
HTAP3 Fires: towards a multi-model, multi-pollutant study of fire impacts
Cynthia H. Whaley, Tim Butler, Jose A. Adame, Rupal Ambulkar, Steve R. Arnold, Rebecca R. Buchholz, Benjamin Gaubert, Douglas S. Hamilton, Min Huang, Hayley Hung, Johannes W. Kaiser, Jacek W. Kaminski, Christoph Knote, Gerbrand Koren, Jean-Luc Kouassi, Meiyun Lin, Tianjia Liu, Jianmin Ma, Kasemsan Manomaiphiboon, Elisa Bergas Masso, Jessica L. McCarty, Mariano Mertens, Mark Parrington, Helene Peiro, Pallavi Saxena, Saurabh Sonwani, Vanisa Surapipith, Damaris Y. T. Tan, Wenfu Tang, Veerachai Tanpipat, Kostas Tsigaridis, Christine Wiedinmyer, Oliver Wild, Yuanyu Xie, and Paquita Zuidema
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3265–3309, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3265-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3265-2025, 2025
Short summary
Using a data-driven statistical model to better evaluate surface turbulent heat fluxes in weather and climate numerical models: a demonstration study
Maurin Zouzoua, Sophie Bastin, Fabienne Lohou, Marie Lothon, Marjolaine Chiriaco, Mathilde Jome, Cécile Mallet, Laurent Barthes, and Guylaine Canut
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3211–3239, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3211-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3211-2025, 2025
Short summary
Pochva: a new hydro-thermal process model in soil, snow, and vegetation for application in atmosphere numerical models
Oxana Drofa
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3175–3209, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3175-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3175-2025, 2025
Short summary
ClimKern v1.2: a new Python package and kernel repository for calculating radiative feedbacks
Tyler P. Janoski, Ivan Mitevski, Ryan J. Kramer, Michael Previdi, and Lorenzo M. Polvani
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3065–3079, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3065-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3065-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Abiodun, B. J., Pal, J. S., Afiesimama, E. A., Gutowski, W. J., and Adedoyin, A.: Simulation of West African monsoon using REgCM3 Part II: impacts of deforestation and desertification, Theor. Appl. Climatol., 93, 245–261, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-007-0333-1, 2008. 
Adeniyi, M. O. and Dilau, K. A.: Assessing the link between Atlantic Nino 1 and drought over Africa using CORDEX regional climate models, Theor. Appl. Climatol., 131, 937–949, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-2018-0, 2018. 
Adler, R. F., Huffman, G. J., Chang, A., Ferraro, R., Xie, P., Janowiak, J., Rudolf, B., Schneider, U., Curtis, S., Bolvin, D., Gruber, A., Susskind, J., Arkin, P., and Nelkin, E.: The Version-2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979–Present), J. Hydrometeorol., 4, 1147–1167, https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2003)004<1147:TVGPCP>2.0.CO;2, 2003. 
Alaka, G. J. and Maloney, E. D.: Internal intraseasonal variability of the West African Monsoon in WRF, J. Climate, 30, 5815–5832, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0750.1, 2017. 
Argent, R., Sun, X., Semazzi, F., Xie, L., and Liu, B.: The development of a customization framework for the WRF model of the Lake Victoria Basin, Eastern Africa on Seasonal Timescales, Adv. Meteorol., 2015, 653473, https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/653473, 2015. 
Download
Short summary
Land use and land cover change is a major contributor to climate change in Africa. Here we document deficiencies in how a weather model represents the land surface of Africa and how we modify a common land surface model to overcome these deficiencies. Our tests reveal that the default weather model does not accurately predict and transition the properties of different African biomes and growing cycles. This paper demonstrates that our modified model addresses these limitations.
Share