how to interpret CLM output rates

[stevenDH]

Hi I have a question regarding variables that are outputted by CLM as rates (e.g. in units gC/m2) what does the area in the nominator refer to?
Are variables in CLM output computed as a rate per grid cell (i.e. can contain both ocean and land area) or per land area (i.e. only the land fraction of the grid cell)?
I would need to know this info as I'm trying to compute the carbon pools (quantity of carbon) so I would need to multiply these rates with a given area but I'm not sure which one. To me it would be logical that these are outputted over the land area only so I would need to compute it like this

output (mass) = output (rate)*gridarea*landfraction

Is this correct? I cannot really find this info anywhere in the docs.

 

[oleson]

Your computation is correct. The only note I found on this was that there is a comment in the global attributes of the history files:

comment = "NOTE: None of the variables are weighted by land fraction!"

 

[stevenDH]

Thanks for the swift reply Keith! And thanks for pointing that out, I will be sure to check that more carefully from now on!