GemPy is an open-source Python-based 3-D structural geological modeling software, which allows the implicit (i.e. automatic) creation of complex geological models from interface and orientation data. GemPy is implemented in the programming language Python, making use of a highly efficient underlying library, Theano, for efficient code generation that performs automatic differentiation. This enables the link to probabilistic machine-learning and Bayesian inference frameworks.

An operational multi-model forecasting system for air quality provides daily forecasts of ozone, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter for 37 urban areas in China. The paper presents an intercomparison of the different forecasts performed during a specific period of time and highlights recurrent differences between the model output. Pathways to improve the forecasts by the multi-model system are suggested.

Wildfires are a concrete problem and impact on human life, property and the environment. An extremely dangerous phenomenon is so-called fire spotting, i.e., the generation of secondary ignitions responsible for dangerous flare-ups during wildfires. The aim of this research was to improve the tools used for risk management through the inclusion of fire spotting in operational wildfire simulators used by forest service agencies.

We present SEVER-FIRE (v1.0), incorporated into the SEVER DGVM. One of the major focuses of SEVER-FIRE is an implementation of the pyrogenic behavior of humans (timing of their activities and their willingness and necessity to ignite or suppress fire), related to socioeconomic and demographic conditions in a geographical domain of the model application. Unlike other DGVM- and ESM-based global fire models, we do not use any satellite-derived assumptions in equations of fire model development.

The GEOS-Chem model has been updated with the SAPRC-11 aromatics chemical mechanism to evaluate global and regional effects of aromatics on tropospheric oxidation capacity. Our results reveal relatively slight changes in ozone, hydroxyl radical, and nitrogen oxides on a global mean basis (1–4 %), although remarkable regional differences (5–20 %) exist near the source regions. Improved representation of aromatics is important to simulate the tropospheric oxidation.

This paper reviews the history, code, and performance of the three dust emission schemes embedded in the WRF-Chem model, including the GOCART, AFWA, and UoC dust emission schemes, and provides the first full documentation of the AFWA scheme. A simulation case study is provided to explore differences in model output. Results highlight the relative strengths of each scheme, indicate reasons for disagreement, and demonstrate the need for improved terrain characterization in dust emission models.

The paper presents a robust tool to estimate the thermodynamic surface complexation parameter for the sorption of uranium(VI) onto quartz surfaces. The optimization package hydroPSO R is coupled with the geochemical speciation code PHREEQC. hydroPSO used the m parameter estimation tool for geochemical modeling with PHREEQC. Coupled hydroPSO with PHREEQC proved to be a robust tool to estimate surface complexation constants for uranium(VI) species on quartz.

Fire and land-use change are important disturbances within the Earth system, and their inclusion in models is critical to enable the correct simulation of vegetation cover. Here we describe developments to the land surface model JULES to represent explicit land-use change and fire and to assess the effects of each process on present day vegetation compared to observations. Using historical land-use data and the fire model INFERNO, overall model results are improved by the developments.

This paper demonstrates the improvements made to an operational ocean forecast model around the Hawaiian Islands by performing a reanalysis of the model over a 10-year period. Using a number of different measurements we show the role a variety of observations play in producing the forecast, in particular the contribution of high-frequency radar.

The reduction of numerical errors in ice sheet modeling increases the results' accuracy reliability. We improve numerical accuracy by better capturing grounding line dynamics, while maintaining a low computational cost. We implement an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) technique in the Ice Sheet System Model and compare AMR simulations with uniformly refined meshes. Our results show that the computational time with AMR is significantly shorter than for uniformly refined meshes for a given accuracy.

This study aims to present a novel application of the recently developed state-of-the-art modeling framework to integrate in situ visualization and a data analysis approach with a model coupling framework. The modeling framework utilizes ParaView/Catalyst to gain more insight about the vast amount of data through in situ visualizations, enabling analysis of fast-moving processes and their evolution in both time and space to support better understanding of underplaying physical mechanisms.

Ensemble forecasting at the convection-permitting scale (< 3 km) requires new methodologies in representing model uncertainties. In this paper a new stochastic scheme is proposed and tested in the complex terrain of the Alps. In this scheme the tendencies of the physical parametrizations are perturbed separately, which sustains a physically consistent relationship between the processes. This scheme increases the stability of the model and leads to improvements in the probabilistic performance.

This paper describes a coupled benthic–pelagic biogeochemical model, ERGOM-SED. We demonstrate its use in a one-dimensional physical model, which is horizontally integrated and vertically resolved. We describe the application of the model to seven stations in the south-western Baltic Sea. The model was calibrated using pore water profiles from these stations. We compare the model results to these and to measured sediment compositions, benthopelagic fluxes and bioturbation intensities.

Oceanic surface conditions coming from coupled ocean–atmosphere global climate models bear considerable biases over the historical climate. We review and present new methods for bias correcting sea surface temperatures and sea-ice concentration coming from such models in order to use them as boundary conditions for atmospheric-only GCMs. For sea ice, we propose a new analogue method which allows us to reproduce more physically consistent future bias-corrected sea-ice concentration maps.

In this paper, we describe and evaluate a new variant of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM). It is a computationally efficient model that is designed for experiments such as paleoclimate, carbon cycle, and large ensemble simulations. The model, with various recent code updates, shows improved climate performance compared to the CMIP5 version of NorESM, while the model resolution remains similar.

Nemo-Nordic is a regional ocean model based on a community code (NEMO). It covers the Baltic and the North Sea area and is used as a forecast model by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. It is also used as a research tool by scientists of several countries to study, for example, the effects of climate change on the Baltic and North seas. Using such a model permits us to understand key processes in this coastal ecosystem and how such processes will change in a future climate.

This paper describes the Community Ice Sheet Model (CISM) version 2.1. CISM solves equations for ice flow, heat conduction, surface melting, and other processes such as basal sliding and iceberg calving. It can be used for ice-sheet-only simulations or as the ice sheet component of the Community Earth System Model. Model solutions have been verified for standard test problems. CISM can efficiently simulate the whole Greenland ice sheet, with results that are broadly consistent with observations.

In this research article, we describe the development of a new model for the water cycle (evaporation, precipitation and transport) for a simple climate model called GREB. Before this work, the water cycle in GREB was merely a dummy. We compare our simple model against more complex models and find a similar skill. The results illustrate that the new GREB model's water cycle is a useful tool to study the changes of the water cycle to external forcings like El Niño or climate change.

Off southeast Australia, the East Australian Current (EAC) moves warm nutrient-poor waters towards the pole. In this region, the EAC and a large number of vortices pinching off it strongly affect phytoplankton’s access to nutrients and light. To study these dynamics, we created a numerical model that is able to solve the ocean conditions and how they modulate the foundation of the region’s ecosystem. We validated model results against available data and this showed that the model performs well.

The General Lake Model (GLM) has been developed to undertake simulation of a diverse range of wetlands, lakes, and reservoirs. The model supports the science needs of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON), a network of lake sensors and researchers attempting to understand lake functioning and address questions about how lakes around the world vary in response to climate and land use change. The paper describes the science basis and application of the model.

Our results show how to halve the energy consumption of urban transportation by transforming the city.

The implementation of the aerosol microphysics submodel MADE3 into the global atmospheric chemistry model EMAC is described and evaluated against an extensive pool of observational data, focusing on aerosol mass and number concentrations, size distributions, composition, and optical properties. EMAC (MADE3) is able to reproduce main aerosol properties reasonably well, in line with the performance of other global aerosol models.

Pyroclastic avalanches are a type of granular flow generated at active volcanoes by different mechanisms, including the collapse of steep pyroclastic deposits (e.g., scoria and ash cones) and fountaining during moderately explosive eruptions. We present IMEX_SfloW2D, a depth-averaged flow model describing the granular mixture as a single-phase granular fluid. Benchmark cases and preliminary application to the simulation of the 11 February pyroclastic avalanche at Mt. Etna (Italy) are shown.