SDWG Computing Projects

The Societal Dimensions Working Group (SDWG) has an open proposal process for computing projects that use the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and NCAR’s Cheyenne and Yellowstone supercomputers to carry out work related to the working group. Below are the seven current projects for 2016-2018, or you may view past projects from 2014-2016.

Current SDWG Computing Projects

Idealized CESM simulations for Human and Earth System Model investigations in THESIS and applied projects

PI contact: Peter Lawrence
This computing project will build on Toolbox for Human-Earth System Integration and Scaling (THESIS) work that was supported during the 2014-2016 SDWG computing cycle, by further developing THESIS tools and their application for crop yields, urban areas, and forestry. Simulations will also support participation in Phase 2 of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) to evaluate yield responses to future scenarios of climate change and management.  
 

The influence of initial land cover state on terrestrial feedbacks and anthropogenic emissions in the integrated Earth System Model

PI contact: Alan Di Vittorio
This computing project will build on integrated Earth System Model (iESM) work that was supported during the 2014-2016 SDWG computing cycle, by extending the simulations into the 21st century. These simulations investigate the sensitivity of carbon dynamics, climate, and feedbacks onto the human system of uncertainty in historical land cover. The results of this experiment have implications for the Land Use Model Intercomparison Project (LUMIP) and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). 
 

Investigating Gross versus Net Land Cover Change in CESM 2/CLM5 as part of the LUMIP/CMIP6 Tier 2 simulations

PI contact: Peter Lawrence
This project will investigate the global and regional effects of gross versus net land use and land cover change (LULCC) transitions on climate and the carbon cycle in the Community Land Model version 5 (CLM5) and the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2). The simulations involved will be particularly important as an extension to the LUMIP and Scenario Model Intercomparison Project (ScenarioMIP) projects in CMIP6. 
 

Impacts of global land use decisions on climate, ecosystems, and human well-being

PI contact: Deborah Lawrence
This project will test the effect of alternative global land futures—increasing forest cover, decreasing forest cover, and increasing biofuels—on climate, ecosystems, and the services they provide, at both the global scale and at a focal region in East Africa. Ultimately, it aims to understand the extent to which land-based mitigation through expanding forest cover can offset fossil-fuel driven climate change through biogeophysical and biogeochemical processes. 
 

Impacts in a 1.5 C scenario with mixed mitigation and geoengineering

PI contact: Simone Tilmes
This project will evaluate a range of physical climate outcomes, as well as crop yields, when a forcing pathway aimed at limiting global mean temperature change to 1.5 C by 2100 is achieved through a combined emissions reduction/geoengineering strategy, and compare them to those occurring under the same forcing pathway achieved through emissions reduction only. Investigating the consequences for this particular scenario is of special interest given the Paris Agreement’s long-term goal of limiting warming to well below 2 C and possibly to 1.5 C. These scenarios may also be used to contribute to a special report produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  
 

Assessing future climate change impact on crop yield in the Americas

PI contact: Guiling Wang
This project will assess the effect of climate change on crop yield in the Americas, using multiple regional climate model simulations to force CLM5. In particular, the project will contrast the effect of using boundary conditions from six individual general circulation model (GCM) simulations in the regional climate model with using an ensemble mean climate as a boundary condition. The simulations will test whether a single regional climate simulation, forced with the ensemble mean, can capture mean climate and provide a realistic magnitude of interannual variability. If successful, the proposed method would reduce the number of simulations required in future impacts studies.  
 

ScenarioMIP simulations

PI contact: Susan Bates
This project, in combination with a similar project in the Climate Variability and Change Working Group (CVCWG), will complete the ScenarioMIP Tier 2 simulations (O’Neill et al., 2016). The ScenarioMIP Tier 2 simulations explore the effect of different emissions, land cover scenarios on future climate. In particular, Tier 2 adds simulations with radiative forcings of 6.0 W/m2, 3.4 W/m2, 1.9 W/m2, as well as an overshoot scenario that branches from the 8.5 W/m2 scenario and reaches 3.4 W/m2 in 2100. Such radiative forcing pathways are important as they fill gaps between existing scenarios and the new ScenarioMIP Tier 1 simulations.