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

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
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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
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
A new method (M3Fusion v1) for combining observations and multiple model output for an improved estimate of the global surface ozone distribution
Kai-Lan Chang, Owen R. Cooper, J. Jason West, Marc L. Serre, Martin G. Schultz, Meiyun Lin, Virginie Marécal, Béatrice Josse, Makoto Deushi, Kengo Sudo, Junhua Liu, and Christoph A. Keller
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 955–978, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-955-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-955-2019, 2019
Short summary

Related subject area

Atmospheric sciences
Accurate space-based NOx emission estimates with the flux divergence approach require fine-scale model information on local oxidation chemistry and profile shapes
Felipe Cifuentes, Henk Eskes, Enrico Dammers, Charlotte Bryan, and Folkert Boersma
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 621–649, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-621-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-621-2025, 2025
Short summary
Exploring a high-level programming model for the NWP domain using ECMWF microphysics schemes
Stefano Ubbiali, Christian Kühnlein, Christoph Schär, Linda Schlemmer, Thomas C. Schulthess, Michael Staneker, and Heini Wernli
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 529–546, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-529-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-529-2025, 2025
Short summary
Quantifying uncertainties in satellite NO2 superobservations for data assimilation and model evaluation
Pieter Rijsdijk, Henk Eskes, Arlene Dingemans, K. Folkert Boersma, Takashi Sekiya, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, and Sander Houweling
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 483–509, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-483-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-483-2025, 2025
Short summary
ML-AMPSIT: Machine Learning-based Automated Multi-method Parameter Sensitivity and Importance analysis Tool
Dario Di Santo, Cenlin He, Fei Chen, and Lorenzo Giovannini
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 433–459, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-433-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-433-2025, 2025
Short summary
Coupling the urban canopy model TEB (SURFEXv9.0) with the radiation model SPARTACUS-Urbanv0.6.1 for more realistic urban radiative exchange calculation
Robert Schoetter, Robin James Hogan, Cyril Caliot, and Valéry Masson
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 405–431, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-405-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-405-2025, 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