A15. Better representation of land surface heterogeneity in E3SM

Improving land surface heterogeneity in E3SM

Title

Efforts towards better representation of land surface heterogeneity in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model

Authors

Teklu Tesfa, Ruby Leung, Peter Thornton, Michael Brunke, Steve Ghan (Unlicensed)

Abstract

Land surface heterogeneity exerts major control on land surface processes. Consequently, better representations of surface heterogeneity may contribute to more accurate climate and land surface simulations in Earth System Models. Recently, new topography-based landunits (also called topounits) have been implemented within a hierarchical subgrid spatial structure to improve representation of land surface processes in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) with minimal increase in computational demand, while improving the ability to capture the spatial heterogeneity of atmospheric forcing and land cover influenced by topography. Recognizing the importance of the effects of subgrid topography on atmospheric processes, methods of downscaling atmospheric forcing from grid cell mean to the subgrid topography-based topounits have also been implemented in the E3SM Land Model (ELM). In this presentation we will discuss overall progress in the implementation of the topography-based subgrid structure in ELM.