BIOS2 Models
The Tools

The BIOS2 modelling system is our key infrastructure for understanding the coupled carbon and water cycles in the Australian landscape. It consists of:

Physical process models:

  • A modified version of the CABLE land surface scheme of Kowalczyk et al., 2006 and Wang et al., 2011, modelling the flows of energy and water at the plant-atmosphere interface.
  • SLI, the soil, litter, and isotope model of Haverd and Cuntz, modelling the flows of energy and water  into and out of the soil and litter, replacing the original CABLE soil module.
  • CASA-CNP, the biogeochemical model of Wang et al., 2010, modelling the flow and storage of carbon between the soil, vegetation, and atmosphere. Nitrogen and phosphorus are currently disabled for BIOS2.

Data management and numerical processing routines:

  • A library of programs for the download and treatment of inputs (gridded vegetation cover, meteorological data and parameters) and outputs for optimum efficiency in the high performance computing environment.
  • a weather generator for downscaling of meteorological data from daily to hourly.
  • model-data fusion capability.

The BIOS2 modelling system computes the current and historical state of the major components of the carbon and water cycles for Australia at a spatial resolution of 0.05° latitude and longitude (~5 km), with results displayed monthly.