Many interactions between various abiotic and biotic processes and their parameters were identified by global sensitivity analysis, revealing strong dependence of a certain model output (e.g. CO₂ or heat fluxes, leaf area index, radiation, water table, soil temperature or snow depth) to model set-up and parameterization in many different processes, a limited transferability of parameter values between models, and the importance of ancillary measurements for improving models and thus predictions.

The study evaluates the performance of a setup of the Weather Research and Forecasting model with chemistry and aerosols (WRF–Chem) for the Berlin–Brandenburg region of Germany. Its sensitivity to updating urban input parameters based on structural data for Berlin is tested, specifying land use classes on a sub-grid scale, downscaling the original emissions to a resolution of ca. 1 km by 1 km for Berlin based on proxy data and model resolution.

This paper devises a new diagram called the vector field evaluation (VFE) diagram. The VFE diagram is a generalized Taylor diagram and is able to provide a concise evaluation of model performance in simulating vector fields (e.g., vector winds) in terms of three statistical variables. The VFE diagram can be applied to the evaluation of full vector fields or anomaly fields as needed. Some potential applications of the VFE diagram in model evaluation are also presented in the paper.

We apply lossy data compression to output from the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble Community Project. We challenge climate scientists to examine features of the data relevant to their interests and identify which of the ensemble members have been compressed, and we perform direct comparisons on features critical to climate science. We find that applying lossy data compression to climate model data effectively reduces data volumes with minimal effect on scientific results.

This paper provides detailed documentation on the changes implemented in the widely used biogeochemical model Biome-BGC. The version containing all improvements is referred to as Biome-BGCMuSo (Biome-BGC with multilayer soil module). Case studies on forest, cropland, and grassland are presented to demonstrate the effect of developments on the simulation. By using Biome-BGCMuSo, it became possible to analyze the effects of different environmental conditions and human activities on the ecosystems.

Here we present a comparison between two approaches to modelling the influence of the city of Barcelona over the local temperature. We show that medium-complexity models such as UrbClim are well suited for impact and adaptation studies at a city scale without high computing requirements, but that they are sensitive to the ability of the input data to represent the local wind regime.

This paper describes several improvements to the so-called "flood-fill algorithm" – a computer program widely known for its use in the "paint bucket" tool in several drawing programs such as MS Paint. However, it can also be used to determine the extent and depth of lakes in a topography map, which is useful in hydrology and climatology. In such cases, the default algorithm can be too slow to be of much use. Our improvements can make it up to 100 times faster, making it much more feasible.

We developed the most comprehensive dataset of daily BC emissions from forest, grassland, shrubland, and savanna fires over northern Eurasia at a 500 m × 500 m resolution from 2002 to 2015. We examined the daily, seasonal, and interannual variability of BC emissions from fires in different ecosystems in the geopolitical regions of Russia, eastern Asia, central and western Asia, and Europe. The results are essential for modeling the transport and deposition of fire-emitted BC to the Arctic.

Impacts of air pollution at a continental scale, estimated using air quality models, can potentially be greatly under- or overestimated due to the low spatial resolution used (grid cells of 10–50 km). We present a method to estimate the spatial variations in air quality within a model grid cell by combining high-resolution emission data with estimates of short range dispersion. This simple but robust technique has the potential to improve estimates of air quality impacts at a continental scale.

This paper presents the improvements brought to an existing model for discharge and temperature prediction in Alpine streams. Compared to the original model version, it is now possible to choose between various alternatives to simulate certain parts of the water cycle, such as the technique used to transfer water along the stream network. The paper includes an example of application of the model over an Alpine catchment in Switzerland.

This paper describes an experimental protocol designed to quantify and understand the global sea level that arises due to past, present, and future changes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, along with investigating ice sheet–climate feedbacks. The Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6) protocol includes targeted experiments, and a set of output diagnostic related to ice sheets, that are part of the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6).