Technical Description of version 4.0 of the Community Land Model (CLM)

The purpose of this technical note is to describe the physical parameterizations and numerical implementation of version 4.0 of the Community Land Model (CLM4.0) which is the land surface parameterization used with the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM4.0) and the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4.0). Scientific justification and evaluation of these parameterizations can be found in the referenced scientific papers (section 18). Chapters 1-16 constitute the description of CLM when coupled to CAM or CCSM, while Chapter 17 describes processes that pertain specifically to the operation of CLM in offline mode (uncoupled to an atmospheric model). Chapters 13 and 14 provide brief overviews only of the urban and carbon-nitrogen submodels. Full technical descriptions of these submodels can be found in Oleson et al. (2010) and Thornton et al. (2010, in preparation), respectively. These technical notes and the CLM4 User's Guide together provide the user with the scientific description and operating instructions for CLM.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Keywords

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Oleson, K.
Lawrence, D.
Bonan, G.
Flanner, M.
Kluzek, E.
Lawrence, P.
Levis, S.
Swenson, S.
Thornton, P.
Dai, A.
Decker, M.
Dickinson, R.
Feddema, J.
Heald, C.
Hoffman, F.
Lamarque, J.
Mahowald, N.
Niu, G.
Qian, T.
Randerson, J.
Running, S.
Sakaguchi, K.
Slater, A.
Stockli, R.
Wang, A.
Yang, Z.
Zeng, X.
Zeng, X.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2010-01-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-17T15:28:10.314486
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::technotes:493
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Oleson, K., Lawrence, D., Bonan, G., Flanner, M., Kluzek, E., Lawrence, P., Levis, S., Swenson, S., Thornton, P., Dai, A., Decker, M., Dickinson, R., Feddema, J., Heald, C., Hoffman, F., Lamarque, J., Mahowald, N., Niu, G., Qian, T., Randerson, J., Running, S., Sakaguchi, K., Slater, A., Stockli, R., Wang, A., Yang, Z., Zeng, X., Zeng, X.. (2010). Technical Description of version 4.0 of the Community Land Model (CLM). UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7zw1kbp. Accessed 26 October 2025.

Harvest Source