Identification

Title

A User's Guide to the VEMAP Phase 1 Database

Abstract

The Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP) is an ongoing multi-institutional, international effort addressing the response of biogeography and biogeochemistry to environmental variability in climate and other drivers in both space and time domains. The objectives of VEMAP are the intercomparison of biogeochemistry models and vegetation-type distribution models (biogeography models) and determination of their sensitivity to changing climate, elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and other sources of altered forcing. The VEMAP exercise allows us to identify important commonalties and differences among model controls and responses. Where the models differ, the comparison highlights areas of uncertainty or error and identifies problems for future research. Inter-model differences also help to quantify the uncertainty in modeled responses to changing climate and other drivers. The completed Phase I of the project was structured as a sensitivity analysis, with factorial combinations of climate (current and projected under doubled CO2), atmospheric CO2, and mapped and model-generated vegetation distributions. The highly structured nature of the intercomparison allowed rigorous analysis of results, while constraining the range of questions explored. Maps of climate, climate change scenarios, soil properties, and potential natural vegetation were prepared as common boundary conditions and driving variables for the models (Kittel et al. 1995). As a consequence, differences in model results arose only from differences among model algorithms and their implementation rather than from differences in inputs. Results from VEMAP I are reported in VEMAP Members (1995) and selected files are available through UCAR's anonymous FTP server (see Section 2.3). Abstracts describing the six modeling groups participating in VEMAP Phase I can be found under the subdirectory /docs. The VEMAP input database for the Phase I model intercomparison is documented in this Technical Note. It includes compiled and model-generated datasets of long-term mean climate, soils, vegetation, and climate change scenarios for the conterminous United States. The data are on a 0.5? latitude/longitude grid. There are both daily and monthly representations of the mean climate. The climate data and climate change scenarios are presented in both gridded and time-sequential format. We developed the time-sequential, "site" file format to facilitate extractions of information for individual grid cells (Sections 4.3 and 12).

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7qc02vg

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Keyword set

keyword value

EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES > MODELS > DYNAMIC VEGETATION/ECOSYSTEM MODELS

EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES > MODELS > CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELS

EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > GLOBAL CHANGE RESPONSES > SCENARIO PLANNING

EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION

EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > SOILS

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR > WATER VAPOR INDICATORS > HUMIDITY > RELATIVE HUMIDITY

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION > SOLAR RADIATION

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > PRECIPITATION > PRECIPITATION AMOUNT > 24 HOUR PRECIPITATION AMOUNT

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE > SURFACE TEMPERATURE > MAXIMUM/MINIMUM TEMPERATURE > 24 HOUR MINIMUM TEMPERATURE

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE > SURFACE TEMPERATURE > MAXIMUM/MINIMUM TEMPERATURE > 24 HOUR MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE

EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES > DATA MANAGEMENT/DATA HANDLING

originating controlled vocabulary

title

U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Global Change Master Directory

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2021-09-17

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

1996-01-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2023-08-18T18:03:40.072651

Metadata language

eng; USA