Adding New Land Cover Class to Modified IGBP

Hello All,

I would like to know the best way add a new land cover class to WRF-Noah-MP? I have successfully modified landcover (LU_NDEX, IVGTYP, etc..) in wrfinput file and time varying veg components in the wrflow files. Do I need to add the new land class to WRF Registry? Or can I modify a land cover in VEGPARM.TBL and MPTABLE.TBL that I am not using? Any guidance on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Melissa

Hi Melissa,
You shouldn't need to make any modifications to the Registry. Noah-MP only uses the MPTABLE.TBL file. The easiest way to do this would be to use one of the categories you are not currently using in your domain, and then make modifications to that category number in all relevant sections of the MPTABLE.TBL file. You'll obviously need to use values that are reasonable for your new category. Note that there are different sections in the file that are dependent upon whether you are using MODIS or USGS landuse data, so you'll want to modify the correct sections.

Thank you so much for that information. It helps tremendously and makes life much easier.

One more question. I also modified the time varying components of LAI, ALBBCK, and VEGFRA in the wrflow files according to my land cover class specification. These changes should take place in the model still with DVEG option set to 1 (dynamic veg turned off) in the Noah-MP parameters?

Thanks and Best,
Melissa

Melissa,
I believe so. To be sure, you could always test a non-modified version, and compare it to a run with your modifications.