References

GMD

Geoscientific Model Development

GMD

Geosci. Model Dev.

1991-9603

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/gmd-5-819-2012

Towards a public, standardized, diagnostic benchmarking system for land surface models

Abramowitz

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

05 06 2012

5 3 819 827

2012

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This article is available from https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/5/819/2012/gmd-5-819-2012.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/5/819/2012/gmd-5-819-2012.pdf

This work examines different conceptions of land surface model benchmarking and the importance of internationally standardized evaluation experiments that specify data sets, variables, metrics and model resolutions. It additionally demonstrates how essential the definition of a priori expectations of model performance can be, based on the complexity of a model and the amount of information being provided to it, and gives an example of how these expectations might be quantified. Finally, the Protocol for the Analysis of Land Surface models (PALS) is introduced – a free, online land surface model benchmarking application that is structured to meet both of these goals.

References 1

Abramowitz, G., Leuning, R., Clark, M., and Pitman, A. J.: Evaluating the performance of land surface models, J. Climate, 21, 5468–5481, 2008.

Blyth, E. M., Best, M., Cox, P., Essery, R., Boucher, O., Harding, R., Prentice, I. C., Vidale, P.-L., and Woodward, I.: JULES: a new community land surface model, IGBP newsletter, 6, 9–11, 2006.

Blyth, E. M., Clark, D. B., Ellis, R., Huntingford, C., Los, S., Pryor, M., Best, M., and Sitch, S.: A comprehensive set of benchmark tests for a land surface model of simultaneous fluxes of water and carbon at both the global and seasonal scale, Geosci. Model Dev., 4, 255–269, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gmd-4-255-2011">https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-4-255-2011</a>, 2011.

Collins, W. D., Bitz, C. M., Blackmon, M. L., Bonan, G. B., Bretherton, C. S., Carton, J. A., Chang, P., Doney, S. C., Hack, J. J., Henderson, T. B., Kiehl, J. T., Large, W. G., McKenna, D. S., Santer, B. D., and Smith R. D.: The Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3), J. Climate, 19, 2122–2143, 2006.

Henderson-Sellers, A., McGuffie, K., and Pitman A. J.: The Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization Schemes (PILPS): 1992 to 1995, Clim. Dynam., 12, 849–859, 1996.

Kidston, J., Brümmer, C., Black, T. A., Morgenstern, K., Nesic, Z., McCaughey, J. H., and Barr, A. G.: Energy Balance Closure Using Eddy Covariance Above Two Different Land Surfaces and Implications for CO<sub>2</sub> Flux Measurements, Bound.-Lay. Meteorol., 136, 193–218, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10546-010-9507-y">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-010-9507-y</a>, 2010.

Ginzburg, L. R. and Jensen, C. X. J.: Rules of thumb for judging ecological theories, Trends Ecol. Evol., 19, 121–126, 2004.

Gordon, H. B., Rotstayn, L. D., McGregor, J., Dix, M. R., Kowalczyk, E. A., Farrell, S. P. O., Waterman, L. J., Hirst, A. C., Wilson, S. G., Collier, M. A., Watterson, I. G., and Elliott., T. I.: The CSIRO Mk3 climate system model, Technical Report 60, CSIRO Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Melbourne, 2002.

Krinner, G., Viovy, N., de Noblet-Ducoudre, N., Ogee, J., Polcher, J., Friedlingtein, P., Ciais, P., Sitch, S., and Prentice I. C.: A dynamic global vegetation model for studies of the coupled atmosphere-biosphere system, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 19, GB1015, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003GB002199">https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GB002199</a>, 2005.

Leuning, R., Cleugh, H. A., Zegelin, S. J., and Hughes, D.: Carbon and water fluxes over a temperate Eucalyptus forest and a tropical wet/dry savanna in Australia: Measurements and comparison with MODIS remote sensing estimates, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 129, 151–173, 2005.

Levis, S., Bonan, G., Vertenstein, M., and Oleson, K.: The community land model's dynamic global vegetation model (CLM-DGVM): Technical description and user's guide, NCAR Tech. Rep. TN-459+IA, 50 pp., 2004.

Manabe, S.: Climate and the ocean circulation: 1, the atmospheric circulation and the hydrology of the Earth's surface, Mon. Weather Rev., 97, 739–805, 1969.

Medlyn, B. E., Robinson, A. P., Clement, R., and McMurtrie, R. E.: On the validation of models of forest CO<sub>2</sub> exchange using eddy covariance data: Some perils and pitfalls, Tree Physiol., 25, 839–857, 2005.

Oleson, K. W., Dai, Y., Bonan, G., Bosilovich, M., Dickinson, R., Dirmeyer, P., Hoffman, F., Houser, P., Levis, S., Niu, G.-Y., Thornton, P., Vertenstein, M., Yang, Z.-L., and Zeng, X.: Technical description of the community land model (CLM), NCAR Tech. Rep., TN-461+STR, 174 pp., 2004.

Oreskes, N., Shrader-Frechette, K., and Belitz, K.: Verification, validation, and confirmation of numerical models in the earth sciences, Science, 263, 641–646, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.263.5147.641">https://doi.org/10.1126/science.263.5147.641</a>, 1994.

Wang, Y. P., Kowalczyk, E., Leuning, R., Abramowitz, G., Raupach, M. R., Pak, B., van Gorsel, E., and Luhar, A.: Diagnosing errors in a land surface model (CABLE) in the time and frequency domains, J. Geophys. Res., 116, G01034, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2010JG001385">https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JG001385</a>, 2011.

Wilson, K., Goldstein, A., Falge, E., Aubinet, M., Baldocchi, D., Berbigier, P., Bernhofer, C., Ceulemans, R., Dolman, H., Field, C., Grelle, A., Ibrom, A., Law, B. E., Kowalski, A., Meyers, T., Moncrieff, J., Monson, R., Oechel, W., Tenhunen, J., Valentini, R., and Verma, S.: Energy balance closure at FLUXNET sites, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 113, 223–243, 2002.