Physical Climatology Problem Set #5

Land Surface Modeling Project

October 12, 2006

Due November 28, 2006

1. As discussed in the class, this modeling project will provide you an opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in running the Community Land Model (CLM), a start-of-the-art land-surface biophysical and hydrological model. You will have had the handout by Tuesday (10/12/2006) that shows how to access the UNIX system, how to set up the model, how to run it, and how to view the results.

2. Every graduate student will have an account to access the Sun Workstation. It is expected that each member will have some hands-on experience in the modeling.

3. Each student will determine his or her own experiments, and will summarize your results in a written report (~15 pages). The report is due before the class on November 28, 2006.

Your project can be about anything, from a sensitivity of the surface energy balance to leaf area index to the impacts of land cover change on runoff. Think about what we have learned so far to formulate your scientific questions.

4. On Tuesday (10/12/2006), the class will be held in the computer laboratory GEO Room 2.108. Dr. Guo-Yue Niu will give a guest lecture about the CLM and show you how to access the UNIX system. You may also access the UNIX system if you have an X-Win32 installed on your PC; see http://www.starnet.com/products/downloads.asp to learn how to download an educational version.

You are also welcome to use a UNIX terminal in my lab (5.220D) as well as in any UNIX machines in the geology department. For UNIX questions, you may want to ask Effie Jarrett, Senior System Analyst, GEO 3.216A, effie@geo.utexas.edu, 512-471-6184. For PC questions, you may want to ask
Ty Lehman,
Senior Systems Analyst, GEO 3.320, lehman@mail.utexas.edu, 512-471-7339.


5. As always, ask me or Dr. Guo-Yue Niu (GEO 5.220D, niu@geo.utexas.edu 512-471-5333) if you have a question.

6. For further information select one of the following links.

Model documentation:

Presentations by Students in Spring 2004:

Reports by Students in Fall 2005:

Websites with overview of unix and vi commands (Courtesy of Lindsey Gulden):

Have fun!