Modeling land-climate coupling in Europe: Impact of land surface representation on climate variability and extremes

Land-climate coupling has been shown to be important for European summer climate variability and extreme events. However, the sensitivity of these feedbacks to land surface model (LSM) choice has been little investigated up to now. In this study, we assess the impact of the LSM on the simulated climate variability in a regional climate model (RCM). The experiments were conducted with the COSMO-CLM2RCM. COSMO-CLM2can be run with two alternative LSMs, the 2nd-generation LSM TERRA_ML or the more sophisticated 3rd-generation LSM Community Land Model (CLM3.5). The analyzed simulations include control and sensitivity experiments with prescribed soil moisture (dry or wet). Using CLM3.5 instead of TERRA_ML improves the simulated temperature variability by alleviating an overestimation of temperature inter-annual variability in the RCM. Also, the representation of the probability density functions of daily maximum summer temperature is improved when using the more advanced LSM. The reduced climate variability is linked to a larger ground heat flux and smaller variability in soil moisture and short-wave radiation. The latter effect results from the coupling of the LSM to the atmospheric module. In addition, using CLM3.5 reduces the sensitivity of COSMO-CLM2to extreme soil moisture conditions. An analysis assessing the relationship between the standard precipitation index and the subsequent number of hot days in summer reveals a better representation of this relationship using CLM3.5. Hence, we find that biases in climate variability and extremes can be reduced and the representation of land-climate coupling can be improved with the use of the more sophisticated LSM

Exploring tutor perceptions and current practices in facilitating diagnostic reasoning in preclinical medical students: Implications for tutor professional development needs

Introduction: This study explores tutors’ experience of teaching diagnostic reasoning (DR) – a key component of clinical reasoning – to build understanding into the use of explicit strategies in facilitating development of DR skills in preclinical medical students. Methods: A qualitative, interpretive study was undertaken with 14 preclinical problem-based learning tutors who participated in semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify key factors that influence students’ learning of diagnostic reasoning. Results: Tutor dispositions towards facilitating learning of DR were variable in this study. Explicit strategies to teach DR were thought to exert positive influences on the development of DR skills, through improving student knowledge and reducing potential error. The advantages of using explicit strategies to teach DR outweighed the perceived difficulties identified in this context. Explicit strategies may need modification for preclinical students and the focus should be on building knowledge of classic presentations and developing metacognitive awareness. Conclusion: The use of explicit educational strategies will contribute to facilitating preclinical student learning of DR skills. Tutor professional development is a key component in the successful implementation of these strategies

Can climate‐effective land management reduce regional warming?

Limiting global warming to well below 2°C is an imminent challenge for humanity. However, even if this global target can be met, some regions are still likely to experience substantial warming relative to others. Using idealized global climate simulations, we examine the potential of land management options in affecting regional climate, with a focus on crop albedo enhancement and irrigation (climate-effective land management). The implementation is performed over all crop regions globally to provide an upper bound. We find that the implementation of both crop albedo enhancement and irrigation can reduce hot temperature extremes by more than 2°C in North America, Eurasia, and India over the 21st century relative to a scenario without management application. The efficacy of crop albedo enhancement scales with the magnitude, where a cooling response exceeding 0.5°C for hot temperature extremes was achieved with a large (i.e., ≥0.08) change in crop albedo. Regional differences were attributed to the surface energy balance response with temperature changes mostly explained by latent heat flux changes for irrigation and net shortwave radiation changes for crop albedo enhancement. However, limitations do exist, where we identify warming over the winter months when climate-effective land management is temporarily suspended. This was associated with persistent cloud cover that enhances longwave warming. It cannot be confirmed if the magnitude of this feedback is reproducible in other climate models. Our results overall demonstrate that regional warming of hot extremes in our climate model can be partially mitigated when using an idealized treatment of climate-effective land management

Excitation and decay of projectile-like fragments formed in dissipative peripheral collisions at intermediate energies

Projectile-like fragments (PLF:15<=Z<=46) formed in peripheral and mid-peripheral collisions of 114Cd projectiles with 92Mo nuclei at E/A=50 MeV have been detected at very forward angles, 2.1 deg.<=theta_lab<=4.2 deg. Calorimetric analysis of the charged particles observed in coincidence with the PLF reveals that the excitation of the primary PLF is strongly related to its velocity damping. Furthermore, for a given V_PLF*, its excitation is not related to its size, Z_PLF*. For the largest velocity damping, the excitation energy attained is large, approximately commensurate with a system at the limiting temperatureComment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Neutron to proton ratios of quasiprojectile and midrapidity emission in the 64^{64}Zn + 64^{64}Zn reaction at 45 MeV/nucleon

Simultaneous measurement of both neutrons and charged particles emitted in the reaction $^{64}$Zn + $^{64}$Zn at 45 MeV/nucleon allows comparison of the neutron to proton ratio at midrapidity with that at projectile rapidity. The evolution of N/Z in both rapidity regimes with increasing centrality is examined. For the completely re-constructed midrapidity material one finds that the neutron-to-proton ratio is above that of the overall $^{64}$Zn + $^{64}$Zn system. In contrast, the re-constructed ratio for the quasiprojectile is below that of the overall system. This difference provides the most complete evidence to date of neutron enrichment of midrapidity nuclear matter at the expense of the quasiprojectile

Fragment Isospin as a Probe of Heavy-Ion Collisions

Isotope ratios of fragments produced at mid-rapidity in peripheral and central collisions of 114Cd ions with 92Mo and 98Mo target nuclei at E/A = 50 MeV are compared. Neutron-rich isotopes are preferentially produced in central collisions as compared to peripheral collisions. The influence of the size (A), density, N/Z, E*/A, and Eflow/A of the emitting source on the measured isotope ratios was explored by comparison with a statistical model (SMM). The mid-rapidity region associated with peripheral collisions does not appear to be neutron-enriched relative to central collisions.Comment: 12 pages including figure

Interplay of initial deformation and Coulomb proximity on nuclear decay

Alpha particles emitted from an excited projectile-like fragment (PLF*) formed in a peripheral collision of two intermediate-energy heavy ions exhibit a strong preference for emission towards the target-like fragment (TLF). The interplay of the initial deformation of the PLF* caused by the reaction, Coulomb proximity, and the rotation of the PLF* results in the observed anisotropic angular distribution. Changes in the shape of the angular distribution with excitation energy are interpreted as being the result of forming more elongated initial geometries in the more peripheral collisions.Comment: 4 figure

Evaluating and improving the Community Land Model's sensitivity to land cover

Modeling studies have shown the importance of biogeophysical effects of deforestation on local climate conditions but have also highlighted the lack of agreement across different models. Recently, remote-sensing observations have been used to assess the contrast in albedo, evapotranspiration (ET), and land surface temperature (LST) between forest and nearby open land on a global scale. These observations provide an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the ability of land surface models to simulate the biogeophysical effects of forests. Here, we evaluate the representation of the difference of forest minus open land (i.e., grassland and cropland) in albedo, ET, and LST in the Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM4.5) using various remote-sensing and in situ data sources. To extract the local sensitivity to land cover, we analyze plant functional type level output from global CLM4.5 simulations, using a model configuration that attributes a separate soil column to each plant functional type. Using the separated soil column configuration, CLM4.5 is able to realistically reproduce the biogeophysical contrast between forest and open land in terms of albedo, daily mean LST, and daily maximum LST, while the effect on daily minimum LST is not well captured by the model. Furthermore, we identify that the ET contrast between forests and open land is underestimated in CLM4.5 compared to observation-based products and even reversed in sign for some regions, even when considering uncertainties in these products. We then show that these biases can be partly alleviated by modifying several model parameters, such as the root distribution, the formulation of plant water uptake, the light limitation of photosynthesis, and the maximum rate of carboxylation. Furthermore, the ET contrast between forest and open land needs to be better constrained by observations to foster convergence amongst different land surface models on the biogeophysical effects of forests. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of comparing subgrid model output to local observations to improve current land surface models' ability to simulate land cover change effects, which is a promising approach to reduce uncertainties in future assessments of land use impacts on climate