We revise the roughness of the land surface in the CESM climate model. Guided by observational data, we increase the surface roughness of forests and decrease that of bare soil, snow, ice, and crops. These modifications alter simulated temperatures and wind speeds at and above the land surface considerably, in particular over desert regions. The revised model represents the diurnal variability of the land surface temperature better compared to satellite observations over most regions.

We coupled established models for boreal forest (LAVESI) and permafrost dynamics (CryoGrid) in Siberia to investigate interactions of the diverse vegetation layer with permafrost soils. Our tests showed improved active layer depth estimations and newly included species growth according to their species-specific limits. We conclude that the new model system can be applied to simulate boreal forest dynamics and transitions under global warming and disturbances, expanding our knowledge.

The term gravitational mass flow (GMF) covers various natural hazard processes such as snow avalanches, rockfall, landslides, and debris flows. Here we present the open-source GMF simulation tool Flow-Py. The model equations are based on simple geometrical relations in three-dimensional terrain. We show that Flow-Py is an educational, innovative GMF simulation tool with three computational experiments: 1. validation of implementation, 2. performance, and 3. expandability.

Muon tomography is a technology that is used often in geoscientific research. The know-how of data analysis is, however, still possessed by physicists who developed this technology. This article aims at providing geoscientists with the necessary tools to perform their own analyses. We hope that a lower threshold to enter the field of muon tomography will allow more geoscientists to engage with muon tomography. SMAUG is set up in a modular way to allow for its own modules to work in between.

We describe the way that our group have chosen to perform our recent analyses of the Palaeoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project ensemble simulations. We document the approach used to obtain and curate the simulations, process those outputs via the Climate Variability Diagnostics Package, and then continue through to compute ensemble-wide statistics and create figures. We also provide interim data from all steps, the codes used and the ability for users to perform their own analyses.

We present a finite-element model of post-seismic solid Earth deformation built in the software package Abaqus for the purpose of calculating post-seismic deformation in the far field of major earthquakes. The model is benchmarked against an existing open-source post-seismic model demonstrating good agreement. The advantage over existing models is the potential for simple modification to include 3-D Earth structure, non-linear rheologies and alternative or multiple sources of stress change.

I preset SciKit-GStat, a well-documented and tested Python package for variogram estimation. The variogram is the core means of geostatistics, which almost all other methods rely on. Geostatistical interpolation and field generation are widely spread in geoscience, i.e., for data assimilation or modeling. While SciKit-GStat focuses on effective and intuitive variogram estimation, it can interface with other prominent packages and make its variograms available for a multitude of methods.

GCAM-USA v5.3_water_dispatch is an open-source model that represents key interactions across economic, energy, water, and land systems in a global framework, with subnational detail in the United States. GCAM-USA can be used to explore future changes in demand for (and production of) energy, water, and crops at the state and regional level in the US. This paper describes GCAM-USA and provides four illustrative scenarios to demonstrate the model's capabilities and potential applications.

This paper proposes a new double Fourier series (DFS) method on a sphere that improves the numerical stability of a model compared with conventional DFS methods. The shallow-water model and the advection model using the new DFS method give stable results without the appearance of high-wavenumber noise near the poles. The model using the new DFS method is faster than the model using spherical harmonics (especially at high resolutions) and gives almost the same results.

Most Earth system models make use of vegetation maps to initialize a simulation at global scale. Satellite-based biomass map estimates for Africa were used to estimate cover fractions for the 15 land cover classes. This study successfully demonstrates that satellite-based biomass maps can be used to better constrain vegetation maps. Applying this approach at the global scale would increase confidence in assessments of present-day biomass stocks.

Our study introduces FETCH3, a ready-to-use, open-access model that simulates the water fluxes across the soil, roots, and stem. To test the model capabilities, we tested it against exact solutions and a case study. The model presented considerably small errors when compared to the exact solutions and was able to correctly represent transpiration patterns when compared to experimental data. The results show that FETCH3 can correctly simulate above- and below-ground water transport.

This work focuses on the added value of high-resolution models relative to their forcing simulations, with a recent observational gridded dataset as a reference, covering the entire Iberian Peninsula. The availability of such datasets with a spatial resolution close to that of regional climate models encouraged this study. For precipitation, most models reveal added value. The gains are even more evident for precipitation extremes, particularly at a more local scale.

This work focuses on the added value of high-resolution models relative to their forcing simulations, with an observational gridded dataset as a reference covering the Iberian Peninsula. The availability of such datasets with a spatial resolution close to that of regional models encouraged this study. For the max and min temperature, although most models reveal added value, some display losses. At more local scales, coastal sites display important gains, contrasting with the interior.

A newly developed setup of the chemistry general circulation model EMAC (ECHAM5/MESSy for Atmospheric Chemistry) is evaluated here. A comprehensive organic degradation mechanism is used and coupled with a volatility base model. The results show that the model reproduces most of the tracers and aerosols satisfactorily but shows discrepancies for oxygenated organic gases. It is also shown that this model configuration can be used for further research in atmospheric chemistry.

In order to understand the atmosphere, we rely on a hierarchy of models ranging from very simple to very complex. Comparing different steps in this hierarchy usually entails comparing different models. Here we combine two such steps that are commonly used in one modelling framework. This makes comparisons both much easier and much more direct.