Implementation of the CORINE land use classification in the regional climate model REMO

Abstract

Regional climate models provide an effective way to study the effects of land use changes on regional climate conditions. A precise land cover map is a precondition for land use change studies. We introduce a more realistic high-resolution land cover map, CORINE Land Cover (CLC), to replace the Global Land Cover Characteristics Database (GLCCD), which is used as a standard land cover map in the regional climate model REMO. In this study, present-day climate simulations over northern Europe are performed by using REMO at 18-km resolution with both CLC and GLCCD. Simulated maximum and minimum 2-m air temperatures, diurnal temperature range and precipitation are assessed with the observation-based E-OBS data. The updated CLC enhances the realism of the description of present-day land surface. However, biases from simulated climate conditions to observations are only marginally reduced while more improvements are expected to be achieved by further developments in model physics.