Objective
To increase our understanding of the role that land-surface processes play in climate change predictions and determine our ability to model the interactions between the land-surface and the atmosphere in a changed climate.
The objectives will be achieved by conducting two types of experiments. Firstly, a series of time-slice
experiments in a greenhouse-gas warmed climate with each of the five European General Circulation Models
(GCMs) using different land-surface schemes. Secondly, a number of simulations with GCMs and regional
models to assess the climatic impact of deforestation which has occurred in the Mediterranean region.
Analysis of the different time-slices for each of the GCMs will reveal the sensitivity of the climate response to
land-surface processes. This will determine which aspects of climate change are affected by the way the surface
is modelled. Comparing this result with the difference in sensitivity of the five GCMs to an increased CO2
concentration will reveal the importance of the uncertainty in land-surface modelling relative to other processes
being modelled in the GCMs. This analysis will focus on the hydrological cycle and surface conditions in a CO2
enhanced climate.
The influence on impact studies due to the uncertainty in climate change simulations will be studied in the
special case of vegetation. The results from the time-slice experiments will be used to compute potential
vegetation maps.
The second set of experiments will compare the climatic impact of a similar change in land-surface conditions
as simulated by different global models. The corresponding simulations with regional models will allow us to
study the importance of finer resolutions on the simulation of surface processes. The impact of small scale
features on the sensitivity of climate to land-surface changes will also be assessed. These results can then be
compared to historical data.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
91128 PALAISEAU
France