GriddingMachine, a database and software for Earth system modeling at global and regional scales

Abstract

Land and Earth system modeling is moving towards more explicit biophysical representations, requiring increasing variety of datasets for initialization and benchmarking. However, researchers often have difficulties in identifying and integrating non-standardized datasets from various sources. We aim towards a standardized database and one-stop distribution method of global datasets. Here, we present the GriddingMachine as (1) a database of global-scale datasets commonly used to parameterize or benchmark the models, from plant traits to vegetation indices and geophysical information and (2) a cross-platform open source software to download and request a subset of datasets with only a few lines of code. The GriddingMachine datasets can be accessed either manually through traditional HTTP, or automatically using modern programming languages including Julia, Matlab, Octave, Python, and R. The GriddingMachine collections can be used for any land and Earth modeling framework and ecological research at the regional and global scales, and the number of datasets will continue to grow to meet the increasing needs of research communities.

Toward More Accurate Modeling of Canopy Radiative Transfer and Leaf Electron Transport in Land Surface Modeling

“…We configured CliMA Land using the globally gridded data sets from GriddingMachine, which shares data sets via FTP/HTTP, Julia, Matlab, Octave, Python, and R (Wang et al., 2022). The data sets we used in the present study (labeled as “gm3”) included soil color (P. J. Lawrence & Chase, 2007), soil hydraulic parameters (Dai et al., 2019), canopy height (Simard et al., 2011), chlorophyll content (Croft et al., 2020), CI (Wei et al., 2019), leaf area index (LAI) (Yuan et al., 2011), specific leaf area (Butler et al., 2017), photosynthetic capacity (Luo et al., 2021), elevation (Yamazaki et al., 2017), land mask (Hersbach et al., 2020), and PFT map used to derive stomatal parameters (P. J. Lawrence & Chase, 2007).…”

Modeling Global Vegetation Gross Primary Productivity, Transpiration and Hyperspectral Canopy Radiative Transfer Simultaneously Using a Next Generation Land Surface Model—CliMA Land

“…Table 3 summarizes the global scale data sets we used to configure CliMA Land and drive model simulations in the presented study (corresponding to “gm1” in our model simulations; see Figure 1 for where these parameters and variables were used). The global maps used can be accessed through GriddingMachine (https://github.com/CliMA/GriddingMachine.jl), a database and software we developed to distribute globally gridded data sets (Y. Wang et al., 2022).…”

“…The global scale data sets used for CliMA Land simulation (except for ERA5 data) can be accessed through GriddingMachine (https://github.com/CliMA/GriddingMachine.jl; Y. Wang et al., 2022). The exact version of CliMA Land used in the present study can be found at (Y. Wang, 2023a), and the model outputs for years 2010 and 2019 are archived at Zenodo (Y. Wang, 2023b).…”

“…The global maps used can be accessed through GriddingMachine (https://github.com/CliMA/GriddingMachine.jl), a database and software we developed to distribute globally gridded data sets (Y. Wang et al, 2022).…”

The Importance of Hyperspectral Soil Albedo Information for Improving Earth System Model Projections

“…We used the gridded Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LAI product at 0.5° spatial resolution and 8‐day temporal resolution (Yuan et al., 2011), weekly mean leaf chlorophyll content to represent seasonality of canopy greenness (Croft et al., 2020), and assumed leaf carotenoid content being 1/7 of the chlorophyll content, specific leaf area as the inverse of leaf mass per area (Butler et al., 2017), leaf photosynthetic capacity represented by the maximum carboxylation rate at a reference temperature of 25°C (Vcmax25) from a machine learning based product (Luo et al., 2021), the maximum electron transport rate at a reference temperature of 25°C (Jmax25), and respiration rate at a reference temperature of 25°C (Rd25) scaled from Vcmax25 as Jmax25 = 1.67.Vcmax25 and Rd25 = 0.015.Vcmax25, a canopy height map was used to initialize plant hydraulic architecture within each simulation (Simard et al., 2011), and MODIS clumping index was used to represent canopy horizontal structure (Braghiere et al., 2019; He et al., 2012). Gridding Machine (Wang et al., 2022) is a tool developed for CliMA‐Land that simplifies the replacement of plant trait maps. These maps contain important information about vegetation characteristics and are crucial for accurately representing vegetation processes in the model.…”