1. Homepage
  2. Impact Model Settings & Characteristics
  3. Impact model: JULES-INFERNO-VN6P3

Impact model: JULES-INFERNO-VN6P3

Sector
Fire
Region
global

This version of the model has the same land surface as JULES-ES, but also has fire (burnt area) simulated by INFERNO turned on. The fire is sensitive to the driving data and has a large impact on vegetation cover, so we submit this as a separate version to use for the fire sector. We also reduce the background mortality rate when we switch on INFERNO so that we don't double count the effect of fire.

Information for the model JULES-INFERNO-VN6P3 is provided for the simulation rounds shown in the tabs below. Click on the appropriate tab to get the information for the simulation round you are interested in.

Person responsible for model simulations in this simulation round
Anna Bradley: anna.bradley@metoffice.gov.uk, 0009-0007-2942-085X, UK Met Office (UK)
Chantelle Burton: chantelle.burton@metoffice.gov.uk, 0000-0003-0201-5727, UK Met Office (UK)
Additional persons involved: Eleanor Burke (eleanor.burke@metoffice.gov.uk)
Resolution
Spatial aggregation: regular grid
Horizontal resolution: 0.5°x0.5°
Vertically resolved: No
Temporal resolution of input data: climate variables: daily
Temporal resolution of input data: co2: annual
Temporal resolution of input data: land use/land cover: annual
Spin-up
Was a spin-up performed?: No
Fire-specific input data sets
What input datasets are used in the fire model and what are they used for?: We use population density data for anthropogenic ignitions, and lightning data for natural ignitions.
What is the time step of the fire model?: The fire model is called every model timestep (1 hour)
What is the time step of the exchange between fire and vegetation model? e.g. are carbon pools and cover fractions updated every day?: The vegetation model uses a daily timestep in this set up, and therefore the exchange with the fire is also daily
Burnt Area
What are the main components of burned area computation?: Flammability, ignitions, fuel and average burnt area by PFT
Ignition
Which sources of ignition are included?: Natural (lightning) and anthropogenic (population density)
Is fire ignition implemented as a random process?: No
How are natural ignitions implemented? which data is used and how is it scaled?: LIS/OTD lightning data provided by ISIMIP, and scaled by 0.2 for cloud-to-ground strikes (reference for scaling factor: Thonicke et al, 2010 https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/7/1991/2010/bg-7-1991-2010.html and Don Latham and Earle Williams 2001 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780123866608500131?via%3Dihub)
Is human influence on fire ignition and/or suppression included? how?: The population density curve for ignitions accounts for suppression at higher population densities (see Mangeon et al 2016)
If human ignitions are included for which conditions are the ignitions highest/lowest?: Anthropogenic ignition and suppression depends on population density (PD), as proposed by Venevsky et al. (2002)
Spread and duration
How does fire spread?: INFERNO does not include fire spread
How is fire duration computed?: INFERNO does not account for fire duration
Fuel load and combustion
How does the model compute fuel load?: Fuel load is taken as PFT-specific leaf carbon plus the carbon within the DPM (Decomposable Plant Material) soil carbon pool, of which we assume 70 % is available to fires, i.e. near surface (DPM is shared across all PFTs)
List of fuel classes (full names and abbreviations): Leaf carbon and DPM soil carbon (see above)
Is fuel moisture linked to soil moisture/air humidity/precip?: INFERNO uses relative humidity, precipitation and soil moisture for fuel moisture within the flammability calculation. The influence of RH scales between 0 and 1, and flammability is dependent on upper-level (down to 0.1 m) unfrozen soil moisture.
Which carbon pools are combusted?: Vegetation carbon, DPM and RPM (decomposable and resistant plant material, both soil pools, represent litter in the model)
Is the combustion completeness constant or depends on what (fuel type, moisture?): Constant
Landcover
What is the minimum/maximum burned area fraction at grid cell level? over which time period? : The minimum burned area fraction of a grid cell is 0 and the maximum burned area fraction of a grid cell is 1 (calculated daily).
Land-cover classes allowed to burn: All natural and pasture vegetation PFTs are allowed to burn. Crops have reduced burning.
Is burned area computed separately for each pft? if not how is burned area separated into the pft-burned area? : Burned area is computed separately for each PFT.
Are peatland fires included?: No
Are deforestation or land clearing fires included?: No
How are pastures represented?: Pasture is treated the same as natural grasses
If croplands burn, does the fire model differ for this pft? if yes please describe.: The average burnt area for crop PFTs is set very low, to account for agricultural management
If pastures burn, does the fire model differ for his pft? if yes, please describe: Pasture is treated the same as natural grasses
Fire mortality
Vegetation fire mortality: is it constant/constant per pft/depends on (for instance fire intensity, bark thickness, veg height): Vegetation mortality varies by PFT, but does not vary by intensity / bark thickness / veg height
Person responsible for model simulations in this simulation round
Anna Bradley: anna.bradley@metoffice.gov.uk, 0009-0007-2942-085X, UK Met Office (UK)
Chantelle Burton: chantelle.burton@metoffice.gov.uk, 0000-0003-0201-5727, UK Met Office (UK)
Additional persons involved: Eleanor Burke (eleanor.burke@metoffice.gov.uk)
Output Data
Experiments: counterclim_histsoc_default, obsclim_histsoc_default
Climate Drivers: 20CRV3, 20CRV3-ERA5, 20CRV3-W5E5, GSWP3-W5E5
Date: 2023-08-01
Basic information
Model Version: 6.3
Model Output License: CC0
Model Homepage: https://code.metoffice.gov.uk/trac/jules
Model License: JULES is available to anyone for non-commercial use, free of charge. Note the JULES licence conditions, the JULES Fair Use and Publication Policy and the MOSRS user terms and conditions.
Reference Paper: Main Reference: Mangeon S, Voulgarakis A, Gilham R, Harper A, Sitch S, Folberth G et al. INFERNO: a fire and emissions scheme for the UK Met Office's Unified Model. Geoscientific Model Development,9,2685-2700,2016
Reference Paper: Other References:
Resolution
Spatial aggregation: regular grid
Horizontal resolution: 0.5°x0.5°
Vertically resolved: Yes
Number of vertical layers: Soil layers - 4 (0.1, 0.25, 0.65, 2.0m)
Temporal resolution of input data: climate variables: daily
Temporal resolution of input data: co2: annual
Temporal resolution of input data: land use/land cover: annual
Temporal resolution of input data: soil: constant
Input data
Observed atmospheric climate data sets used: GSWP3-W5E5 (ISIMIP3a), 20CRv3, 20CRv3-ERA5, 20CRv3-W5E5
Socio-economic data sets used: Historical land transformation, National, gridded historical population
Land use data sets used: Historical, gridded land use
Other human influences data sets used: Nitrogen deposition (ISIMIP3)
Other data sets used: Lightning, Land-sea mask
Climate variables: huss, sfcWind, tasmax, tas, tasmin, rlds, rsds, ps, pr
Spin-up
Was a spin-up performed?: Yes
Spin-up design: Length of spin up - 1801-1807 (repeating climate (number of times is unknown) until vegetation and soil carbon is stable) CO2 concentration - 1801-1807
Natural Vegetation
Natural vegetation partition: Plant functional types - 9 natural PFTs (tropical broadleaf evergreen trees (BET-Tr), temperate broadleaf evergreen trees (BET-Te), broadleaf deciduous trees (BDT), needleleaf evergreen trees (NET), needleleaf deciduous trees (NDT), C3 grasses (C3G), C4 grasses (C4G), evergreen shrubs (ESh) and deciduous shrubs (DSh)) and 4 managed PFTs (C3 and C4 crop and pasture (C3Cr, C4Cr, C3Pa and C4Pa)).
Natural vegetation dynamics: TRIFFID
Natural vegetation cover dataset: Not prescribed
Soil layers: Soil layers - 4 (thickness = 0.1, 0.25, 0.65, 2.0m)
Management & Adaptation Measures
Management: Land-use (crop and pasture prescribed)
Extreme Events & Disturbances
Key challenges: Fire
Fire-specific input data sets
What input datasets are used in the fire model and what are they used for?: We use population density data for anthropogenic ignitions, and lightning data for natural ignitions.
What is the time step of the fire model?: The fire model is called every model timestep (1 hour)
What is the time step of the exchange between fire and vegetation model? e.g. are carbon pools and cover fractions updated every day?: The vegetation model uses a daily timestep in this set up, and therefore the exchange with the fire is also daily
Burnt Area
What are the main components of burned area computation?: Flammability, ignitions, fuel and average burnt area by PFT
Ignition
Which sources of ignition are included?: Natural (lightning) and anthropogenic (population density)
Is fire ignition implemented as a random process?: No
How are natural ignitions implemented? which data is used and how is it scaled?: LIS/OTD lightning data provided by ISIMIP, and scaled by 0.2 for cloud-to-ground strikes (reference for scaling factor: Thonicke et al, 2010 https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/7/1991/2010/bg-7-1991-2010.html and Don Latham and Earle Williams 2001 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780123866608500131?via%3Dihub)
Is human influence on fire ignition and/or suppression included? how?: The population density curve for ignitions accounts for suppression at higher population densities (see Mangeon et al 2016)
If human ignitions are included for which conditions are the ignitions highest/lowest?: Anthropogenic ignition and suppression depends on population density (PD), as proposed by Venevsky et al. (2002)
Spread and duration
How does fire spread?: INFERNO does not include fire spread
How is fire duration computed?: INFERNO does not account for fire duration
Fuel load and combustion
How does the model compute fuel load?: Fuel load is taken as PFT-specific leaf carbon plus the carbon within the DPM (Decomposable Plant Material) soil carbon pool, of which we assume 70 % is available to fires, i.e. near surface (DPM is shared across all PFTs)
List of fuel classes (full names and abbreviations): Leaf carbon and DPM soil carbon (see above)
Is fuel moisture linked to soil moisture/air humidity/precip?: INFERNO uses relative humidity, precipitation and soil moisture for fuel moisture within the flammability calculation. The influence of RH scales between 0 and 1, and flammability is dependent on upper-level (down to 0.1 m) unfrozen soil moisture.
Which carbon pools are combusted?: Vegetation carbon, DPM and RPM (decomposable and resistant plant material, both soil pools, represent litter in the model)
Is the combustion completeness constant or depends on what (fuel type, moisture?): Constant
Landcover
What is the minimum/maximum burned area fraction at grid cell level? over which time period? : The minimum burned area fraction of a grid cell is 0 and the maximum burned area fraction of a grid cell is 1 (calculated daily).
Land-cover classes allowed to burn: All natural and pasture vegetation PFTs are allowed to burn. Crops have reduced burning.
Is burned area computed separately for each pft? if not how is burned area separated into the pft-burned area? : Burned area is computed separately for each PFT.
Are peatland fires included?: No
Are deforestation or land clearing fires included?: No
How are pastures represented?: Pasture is treated the same as natural grasses
If croplands burn, does the fire model differ for this pft? if yes please describe.: The average burnt area for crop PFTs is set very low, to account for agricultural management
If pastures burn, does the fire model differ for his pft? if yes, please describe: Pasture is treated the same as natural grasses
Fire mortality
Vegetation fire mortality: is it constant/constant per pft/depends on (for instance fire intensity, bark thickness, veg height): Vegetation mortality varies by PFT, but does not vary by intensity / bark thickness / veg height




Website consultancy, design and implementation:
Matthias Brück
brueck.io

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.