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Title: A simple object-oriented and open-source model for scientific and policy analyses of the global climate system – Hector v1.0

Journal Article · · Geoscientific Model Development (Online)
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Simple climate models play an integral role in the policy and scientific communities. They are used for climate mitigation scenarios within integrated assessment models, complex climate model emulation, and uncertainty analyses. Here we describe Hector v1.0, an open source, object-oriented, simple global climate carbon-cycle model. This model runs essentially instantaneously while still representing the most critical global-scale earth system processes. Hector has a three-part main carbon cycle: a one-pool atmosphere, land, and ocean. The model's terrestrial carbon cycle includes primary production and respiration fluxes, accommodating arbitrary geographic divisions into, e.g., ecological biomes or political units. Hector actively solves the inorganic carbon system in the surface ocean, directly calculating air–sea fluxes of carbon and ocean pH. Hector reproduces the global historical trends of atmospheric [CO2], radiative forcing, and surface temperatures. The model simulates all four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) with equivalent rates of change of key variables over time compared to current observations, MAGICC (a well-known simple climate model), and models from the 5th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Hector's flexibility, open-source nature, and modular design will facilitate a broad range of research in various areas.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Integrated Assessment Research Program
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1182883
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-104722; KP1703030
Journal Information:
Geoscientific Model Development (Online), Vol. 8, Issue 4; ISSN 1991-9603
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 65 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (22)

A simulated roadmap of hydrogen technology contribution to climate change mitigation based on Representative Concentration Pathways considerations journal May 2018
Quantifying operational lifetimes for coal power plants under the Paris goals journal October 2019
Integrated human-earth system modeling—state of the science and future directions journal June 2018
The Paris pledges and the energy-water-land nexus in Latin America: Exploring implications of greenhouse gas emission reductions journal April 2019
pyhector: A Python interface for the simple climate model Hector journal April 2017
Pymagicc: A Python wrapper for the simple climate model MAGICC journal February 2018
Climate Change Impacts on Natural Sulfur Production: Ocean Acidification and Community Shifts journal May 2018
Ocean acidification over the next three centuries using a simple global climate carbon-cycle model: projections and sensitivities journal January 2016
Evaluating climate emulation: fundamental impulse testing of simple climate models journal January 2019
Fldgen v1.0: an emulator with internal variability and space–time correlation for Earth system models journal January 2019
GCAM v5.1: representing the linkages between energy, water, land, climate, and economic systems journal January 2019
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Figures / Tables (15)

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
carbon cycle
climate model
CMIP5
open source
modular architecture