SellersetalScicenc97 - Modeling the Exchanges of Energy Water and Carbon Between Continents and the Atmosphere P J Sellers et al Science 275 502(1997

DOI: 10.1126/science.275.5299.502 , 502 (1997); 275 Science et al. P. J. Sellers, Carbon Between Continents and the Atmosphere Modeling the Exchanges of Energy, Water, and www.sciencemag.org (this information is current as of January 25, 2008 ): The following resources related to this article are available online at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/275/5299/502 version of this article at: including high-resolution figures, can be found in the online Updated information and services, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/275/5299/502#otherarticles 3 articles hosted by HighWire Press; see: cited by This article has been http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/collection/atmos Atmospheric Science : subject collections This article appears in the following http://www.sciencemag.org/about/permissions.dtl in whole or in part can be found at: this article permission to reproduce of this article or about obtaining reprints Information about obtaining registered trademark of AAAS. is a Science 1997 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; all rights reserved. The title Copyright American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. (print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published weekly, except the last week in December, by the Science on January 25, 2008 www.sciencemag.org Downloaded from

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Modeling the Exchanges of Energy, Water, and Carbon Between Continents and the Atmosphere P. J. Sellers,* R. E. Dickinson, D. A. Randall, A. K. Betts, F. G. Hall, J. A. Berry, G. J. Collatz, A. S. Denning, H. A. Mooney, C. A. Nobre, N. Sato, C. B. Field, A. Henderson-Sellers Atmospheric general circulation models used for climate simulation and weather fore- casting require the fluxes of radiation, heat, water vapor, and momentum across the land-atmosphere interface to be specified. These fluxes are calculated by submodels called land surface parameterizations. Over the last 20 years, these parameterizations have evolved from simple, unrealistic schemes into credible representations of the global soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer system as advances in plant physiological and hydrological research, advances in satellite data interpretation, and the results of large- scale field experiments have been exploited. Some modern schemes incorporate bio- geochemical and ecological knowledge and, when coupled with advanced climate and ocean models, will be capable of modeling the biological and physical responses of the Earth system to global change, for example, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. U ntil the early 1980s, global atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) in - corporated very simple land surface param - eterizations (LSPs) to estimate the ex - changes of energy, heat, and momentum between the land surface and the atmo - sphere. These have since evolved into a family of schemes that can realistically de - scribe a comprehensive range of land - atmo - sphere interactions. These advanced schemes will be needed to understand the response of the biosphere and the climate system to global change, for example, in - creasing atmospheric CO 2 ( 1–3 ).