Preparing for a Century5 or DayCent5 Simulation

To prepare for a simulation, proceed through the following steps:

  1. Create a directory or a directory tree to hold your simulation files. Example directory structures are shown in Files and Directories

  2. Select model to use for your simulations, either Century5 or DayCent5.

  3. Site Parameters. These can be read from either Century5 NetCDF files, or Century4 site.100 files.

  4. Management of the Site. Site management, or land-use, can be read from either a Century5 NetCDF management file, or a Century4 schedule file (.sch file).

  5. Site Weather. This is specified when the management blocks are used ("block instances").

    Optionally, create a file in the directory from which you will run your simulations, named WeatherDataPaths.txt. This contains the path to your weather files. For more information see Locations of Weather Data Files.

  6. Model Parameters (optional). Model parameters are collections of values for various types of plants, land-use management, and internal equation parameters. In particular, you should select a "fixed" parameter set. For a list of these files, see Fixed Parameters.

  7. Atmospheric [CO2] data (optional). You can specify annual near-surface CO2 concentrations. This is specified in the management simulation information.

  8. 14C Data File (optional). If you are working with 14C isotope labeling, then a 14C data file will be required. This is specified in the management simulation information.

  9. Type of Output File. Simulation results can be written to either a set of text CSV-formatted files, or to netCDF files.

  10. Restart file (optional). If you want to use the results of this simulation as a starting point for additional simulations, specify a restart file to be written at the end of the simulation. This will then be the site file for the next simulations.

    The restart file is a site parameters file. You can view the parameters with any program which reads netCDF files. The R package ncdf4 will extract the parameter values. In a console window you can display the values using the netCDF utility ncdump.

You may be able to use the predefined site, management, and model parameters that are provided with the models as a starting point for your sites, making mimimal modifications to the site characteristics and management as necessary. Optionally, a set of parameters describing the site's mean monthly weather may be needed.

You should store all the files for a simulation in their own folder (or directory), along with the results of the simulation. Hence, for each simulation you should create a new folder.

You will create a command-line specifying the these files: site parameters, the management schedule, output file root name, the fixed parameters, and optionally the restart file. Your command-line will also contain options specifying the output format, and other initialization and display options. See Command Options for details.

See Also

Files and Folders
Running a Simulation
Viewing Simulation Results