Feng et al. (2025) Implementation and Evaluation of Emission‐Driven Land‐Atmosphere Coupled Simulation in E3SMv2.1

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-01
• Authors: Sha Feng, Bryce E. Harrop, Daniel Ricciuto, Susannah M. Burrows, Qing Zhu, Wuyin Lin, Nathan Collier, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Chengzhu Zhang, Ryan M. Forsyth, Jonathan D. Wolfe, Xiaoying Shi, Peter Thornton, Yohei Takano, Mathew Maltrud, Balwinder Singh, Yilin Fang, Jennifer A. Holm, Nicole Jeffery, L. Ruby Leung
• DOI: 10.1029/2025ms005099

Research Groups

E3SM Project/Consortium (Energy Exascale Earth System Model)

Short Summary

This paper introduces and evaluates BGCLNDATM_progCO2, the first emissions-driven land-atmosphere coupled biogeochemistry configuration in E3SMv2.1, performing historical emission-hindcasts from 1850 to 2014. While it overestimates atmospheric CO2 by 11–23 ppm, it remains within the spread of CMIP6 models and largely retains physical climate properties, laying the groundwork for advanced carbon-climate feedback projections.

Objective

• To implement and document an emissions-driven land-atmosphere coupled biogeochemistry configuration (BGCLNDATM_progCO2) in E3SMv2.1.
• To evaluate the model's performance against observations and other models using transient historical simulations (1850–2014).
• To propose a structured evaluation protocol for emissions-driven simulations to enhance scientific rigor and facilitate inter-model comparisons.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, with analysis of regional effects, particularly over land.
• Temporal Scale: Transient historical simulations from 1850 to 2014 (165 years).

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • E3SMv2.1 (BGCLNDATM_progCO2 configuration)
  • Reference E3SM simulations (land-atmosphere coupled without BGC, standalone land with BGC, both with prescribed CO2)
  • CMIP6 emission-driven models (for inter-model comparison of CO2 spread)
• Data sources:
  • Observations (for model evaluation)
  • Other models (CMIP6 emission-driven models)

Main Results

• The BGCLNDATM_progCO2 configuration overestimates atmospheric CO2 concentrations by 11–23 ppm during the historical period.
• Despite the bias, the simulated CO2 concentrations remain within the 40-ppm spread observed across CMIP6 emission-driven models.
• The configuration retains physical climate properties comparable to reference simulations at the global scale.
• CO2 biases are partly attributed to underrepresented oceanic CO2 uptake and inadequate representations of some terrestrial processes.
• Introducing prognostic CO2 led to larger regional effects, especially over land, where spatially heterogeneous CO2 and prognostic leaf area index influenced the surface energy balance.
• A general evaluation protocol was proposed, encompassing spin-up assessment, atmospheric CO2 benchmarking, physical climate evaluation, and land biogeochemical analysis.

Contributions

• Presents the first E3SM configuration (BGCLNDATM_progCO2) capable of performing land-atmosphere emission-hindcasts.
• Provides a detailed documentation and evaluation of this novel emissions-driven configuration within E3SMv2.1.
• Proposes a structured and comprehensive evaluation protocol specifically designed for emissions-driven Earth System Model simulations.
• Establishes a foundation for future enhancements in E3SM, including improved terrestrial and marine biogeochemistry, and integrated human-Earth system interactions, advancing toward fully coupled emissions-driven simulations for more accurate carbon-climate feedback projections and policy-relevant carbon-budget metrics.

Funding

Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Feng2025Implementation,
  author = {Feng, Sha and Harrop, Bryce E. and Ricciuto, Daniel and Burrows, Susannah M. and Zhu, Qing and Lin, Wuyin and Collier, Nathan and Bond‐Lamberty, Ben and Zhang, Chengzhu and Forsyth, Ryan M. and Wolfe, Jonathan D. and Shi, Xiaoying and Thornton, Peter and Takano, Yohei and Maltrud, Mathew and Singh, Balwinder and Fang, Yilin and Holm, Jennifer A. and Jeffery, Nicole and Leung, L. Ruby},
  title = {Implementation and Evaluation of Emission‐Driven Land‐Atmosphere Coupled Simulation in E3SMv2.1},
  journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025ms005099},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025ms005099}
}