Part 13: Setting Up FATES at a New Site

A new site simulation requires three main inputs:

Surface file
Domain file
Climate forcing

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Surface Files

Contain information such as:

Land cover
Soil properties
Topography
Vegetation characteristics

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Domain Files

Define:

Spatial extent
Grid information

for the simulation.

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Climate Forcing

Typically contains:

Solar radiation
Precipitation
Temperature
Humidity
Wind

at six-hourly or finer resolution.

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Generate Site Files

Navigate to:

cd $VSC_SCRATCH/cesm/sources/ctsm-5.2.0/tools/site_and_regional

Run:

./subset_data point \
    --lat 8.95 \
    --lon 280.2 \
    --site bci_subset \
    --create-surface \
    --create-datm \
    --create-domain \
    --dompft 1 \
    --overwrite \
    --datm-syr 2003 \
    --datm-eyr 2015 \
    --create-user-mods \
    --outdir $VSC_SCRATCH/cesm/sitedata/bci_test \
    --inputdata-dir $VSC_SCRATCH/cesm/inputdata

This generates site-level files that can be used in a new FATES simulation.

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Create a New Site Script

Start from an existing example.

For example:

create_clm-fates-yangambi.sh

Rename it for your site.

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Update the Script

Modify:

SITE
PTS_LAT
PTS_LON
surface file
domain file
STOP_N
REST_N

Ensure the script points to the files generated by subset_data.

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Additional Output Variables

Extra output variables can be requested through:

user_nl_elm

within the create script.

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