Introduction to Biophysical Modeling of Land Surface Processes and land/atmosphere interactions (Geog 206)

The challenge posed by global climate and environmental change research and environmental modeling has promoted the development of biophysical modeling of land surface processes in the past two decades. This field has grown from a sub-branch of Biology and Micro-Meteorology, which only dealt with small scale phenomena, to an important component of environmental science that tackles broad issues in earth science. For example, one of the main goals for biophysical modeling is to understand land surface-climate interactions, which is one of the major research topics in earth science today.

Due to its interdisciplinary nature, it is difficult for students to understand the general scopes of biophysical modeling. This course intends to present introductory knowledge for students to understand its nature, principles, and scopes. The course will provide a starting point for students who would like to further pursue studies in this direction, and will provide general background knowledge for students who would like to work on issues related to environmental and climate change. This course is designed for graduate students. Undergraduate students may be accepted with consent of instructor.

This course will include eight sections: introduction, ideal canopy model, radiative transfer, transfer of heat fluxes and water, photosynthesis process and CO2 flux transfer, dynamic vegetation modeling, application of satellite data for land processes, and model intercomparison. This course also will offer laboratory sessions, which will training students the use of an off-line biophysical model, Simplified Simple Biosphere Model (SSiB) to investigate the sensitivity of land surface processes to land cover change.

The course covers almost every important aspect in biophysical modeling. The basic conceptual understanding is its main purpose. The course will present limited basic equations. Derivations and applications of these equations are not required. This course will require the students to run the off-line biophysical model (SSiB) in the Lab classes and conduct sensitivity tests. The results from the Lab need to be presented in a final report.