The Community Land Model (CLM4 in CESM1.0.4) is the latest in a series of global land models developed by the CESM Land Model Working Group (LMWG) and maintained at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This guide is intended to instruct both the novice and experienced user on running CLM. This guide pertains to the latest version CLM4 in CESM1.0.4 available for download from the public release subversion repository as a part of CESM1.0.4. Documentation may be different if you are using an older version, you should either update to the latest version, or use the documentation inside your own source tree. There is information in the ChangeLog file and in the What is new with CLM4 in CESM1.0.4 since previous public releases? regarding the changes from previous versions of CESM.
The novice user should read Chapter 1 in detail before beginning work, while the expert user should read What is new with CLM4 in CESM1.0.4 since previous public releases? and Quickstart to using CLM4 chapters, and then use the more detailed chapters as reference. Before novice users go onto more technical problems covered in Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, or Chapter 5 they should know the material covered in Chapter 1 and be able to replicate some of the examples given there.
All users should read the How to Use This Document and Other resources to get help from sections to understand the document conventions and the various ways of getting help on using CLM4. Users should also read the What is scientifically validated and functional in CLM4? section to see if their planned use of the model is something that has been scientifically validated and well tested. Users that are NOT using NCAR machines or our list of well tested machines should also read the What are the UNIX utilities required to use CLM? section to make sure they have all the required UNIX utilities on the system they want to do their work.