Welcome to CCSM

expand   collapse

 

CCSM Project

About CCSM

CCSM belongs to an elite category of computer-based simulation models known as general-circulation models. Such models use mathematical formulas to recreate the chemical and physical processes that drive Earth's climate. What emerges from trillions of computer calculations is a picture of the world's climate in all its complexity. [More...] [CCSM Brochure]

Publication News

Sensitivity of a model projection of near-surface permafrost degradation to soil column depth and representation of soil organic matter
The sensitivity of a global land-surface model projection of near-surface permafrost degradation is assessed with respect to explicit accounting of the thermal and hydrologic properties of soil organic matter and to a deepening of the soil column from 3.5 to 50 or more m. [article] [abstract]

Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests
The world's forests influence climate through physical, chemical, and biological processes that affect planetary energetics, the hydrologic cycle, and atmospheric composition. These complex and nonlinear forest-atmosphere interactions can dampen or amplify anthropogenic climate change. [abstract] [full text]

Improvements to the Community Land Model and their impact on the hydrological cycle
The Community Land Model version 3 (CLM3) is the land component of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM). CLM3 has energy and water biases resulting from deficiencies in some of its canopy and soil parameterizations related to hydrological processes. Recent research by the community that utilizes CLM3 and the family of CCSM models has indicated several promising approaches to alleviating these biases. [article] [abstract]

Use of FLUXNET in the Community Land Model development
The Community Land Model version 3 (CLM3.0) simulates land-atmosphere exchanges in response to climatic forcings. CLM3.0 has known biases in the surface energy partitioning as a result of deficiencies in its hydrological and biophysical parameterizations. Such models, however, need to be robust for multidecadal global climate simulations. FLUXNET now provides an extensive data source of carbon, water and energy exchanges for investigating land processes, and it encompasses a global range of ecosystem-climate interactions. [article] [abstract]