Question about the use of Land use fraction (LANDUSEF) in the model

[psagar]

If we select MODIFIED_IGBP_MODIS_NOAH, there are actually 21 (0-20) categories in the input data, which can be seen from LANDUSEF in geo_em*. However, in the VEGPARM.TBL, LANDUSEF is identified only from 1 to 20, e.g. 1 for evergreen needleleaf forest and 20 for barren tundra, which means that there are only 20 categories. Could anyone comment on this discrepancy? For example, if I want to modify Croplands, I would change the values for the category 12 in the VEGPARM.TBL but in the input file, Croplands actually corresponds to 11 in the land_cat_stag, not 12. This creates confusion. Could you please clarify?

 

[kwerner]

Hi,
Apologies for the delay in response. The variable LANDUSEF should just be a 0-1 categories, where the variations are in decimals. Perhaps you meant LU_INDEX, which should have categories 1-21. I'm not sure how you would get 0-20 in your geo_em* files.

The extra category (21) is for lakes, and is available until real.exe is run and it is merged with the general water category (like oceans). At that point a lake mask is created (LAKEMASK). You definitely should not change the other categories from 1-20.