Welcome to TSS

 

Research

I am a project scientist in TSS of NCAR's Climate and Global Dynamics Division. My research interests are:

• Urban Modeling
• Land use and land cover change
• The hydrological cycle in land surface models

I also support the development of the CCSM Land Model, the Community Land Model (CLM).

Education

• Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1998.
• M.S., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1994.
• B.A., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1981.

Publications

Oleson, K.W., G.B. Bonan, J. Feddema, M. Vertenstein, and C.S.B. Grimmond, 2008: An urban parameterization for a global climate model. 1. Formulation and evaluation for two cities, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 47, 1038-1060.

Oleson, K.W., G.B. Bonan, J. Feddema, and M. Vertenstein, 2008: An urban parameterization for a global climate model. 2. Sensitivity to input parameters and the simulated urban heat island in offline simulations, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 47, 1061-1076.

Oleson, K.W., G.-Y. Niu, Z.-L. Yang, D.M. Lawrence, P.E. Thornton, P.J. Lawrence, R. Stockli, R.E. Dickinson, G.B. Bonan, S. Levis, A. Dai, and T. Qian, 2008: Improvements to the Community Land Model and their impact on the hydrological cycle, J. Geophys. Res., 113, G01021, doi:10.1029/2007JG000563.

Stockli, R., D.M. Lawrence, G.-Y. Niu, K.W. Oleson, P.E. Thornton, Z.-L. Yang, G.B. Bonan, A.S. Denning, and S.W. Running, 2008: The use of Fluxnet in the Community Land Model development, J. Geophys. Res., 113, G01025, doi:10.1029/2007JG000562.

Lawrence, D.M., P.E. Thornton, K.W. Oleson, and G.B. Bonan, 2007: The partitioning of evapotranspiration into transpiration, soil evaporation, and canopy evaporation in a GCM: Impacts on land-atmosphere interaction, J. Hydrometerol., 8, 862-880.

Oleson, K.W., G.B. Bonan, J. Feddema, and M. Vertenstein, 2007: Technical description of an urban parameterization for the Community Land Model (CLM), NCAR Technical Note, in preparation.

Dickinson, R.E., K.W. Oleson, G. Bonan, F. Hoffman, P. Thornton, M. Vertenstein, Z.-L. Yang, X. Zeng, 2006: The Community Land Model and its climate statistics as a component of the Community Climate System Model, J. Climate, 19, 2302-2324.

Hack, J.J., J.M. Caron, S.G. Yeager, K.W. Oleson, M.M. Holland, J.E. Truesdale, and P.J. Rasch, 2006: Simulation of the global hydrological cycle in the CCSM Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3): Mean features, J. Climate, 19, 2199-2221.

Hack, J.J., J.M. Caron, G. Danabasoglu, K.W. Oleson, C. Bitz, and J.E. Truesdale, 2006: CCSM CAM3 climate simulation sensitivity to changes in horizontal resolution, J. Climate, 19, 2267-2289.

Qian, T., A. Dai, K.E. Trenberth, and K.W. Oleson, 2006: Simulation of global land surface conditions from 1948 to 2004: Part I: Forcing data and evaluations, J. Hydrometeorol., 7, 953-975.

Koster, R.D., Z. Guo, P.A. Dirmeyer, G. Bonan, E. Chan, P. Cox, H. Davies, C.T. Gordon, S. Kanae, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, S. Malyshev, B. McAvaney, K. Mitchell, D. Mocko, T. Oki, K.W. Oleson, A. Pitman, Y.C. Sud, C.M. Taylor, D. Verseghy, R. Vasic, Y. Xue, and T. Yamada, 2006: GLACE: The Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment. Part I: Overview, J. Hydrometeorol., 7, 590-610.

Z. Gao, P.A. Dirmeyer, R.D. Koster, G. Bonan, E. Chan, P. Cox, C.T. Gordon, S. Kanae, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, S. Malyshev, B. McAvaney, J.L. McGregor, K. Mitchell, D. Mocko, T. Oki, K.W. Oleson, A. Pitman, Y.C. Sud, C.M. Taylor, D. Verseghy, R. Vasic, Y. Xue, and T. Yamada, 2006: GLACE: The Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment. Part II: Analysis, J. Hydrometeorol., 7, 611-625.

S.I. Seneviratne, R.D. Koster, Z. Gao, P.A. Dirmeyer, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, D. Mocko, K.W. Oleson, and D. Verseghy, 2006: Soil moisture memory in AGCM simulations: Analysis of Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE) data, J. Hydrometeorol., 7, 1090-1112.

Feddema, J., K. Oleson, G. Bonan, L. Mearns, W. Washington, G. Meehl, and D. Nychka, 2005: A comparison of a GCM response to historical anthropogenic land cover change and model sensitivity to uncertainty in present-day land cover representations, Climate Dynamics, doi:10.1007/s00382-005-0038-z.

Zeng, X., R.E. Dickinson, M. Barlage, Y. Dai, G. Wang, and K. Oleson, 2005: Treatment of under-canopy turbulence in land models, J. Climate, 18: 5086-5094.

Feddema, J.J., K.W. Oleson, G. Bonan, L.O. Mearns, L.E. Buja, G.A. Meehl, and W.M. Washington, 2005: The importance of land cover change in simulating future climates, Science, 310: 1674-1678.

Oleson, K.W., G.B. Bonan, S. Levis, and M. Vertenstein, 2004: Effects of land use change on North American climate: Impact of surface datasets and model biogeophysics, Clim. Dyn., 23, doi:10.1007/s00382-004-0426-9.

Koster, R.D., P.A. Dirmeyer, Z. Guo, G. Bonan, E. Chan, P. Cox, C.T. Gordon, S. Kanae, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, S. Malyshev, B. McAvaney, K. Mitchell, D. Mocko, T. Oki, K. Oleson, A. Pitman, Y.C. Sud, C.M. Taylor, D. Verseghy, R. Vasic, Y. Xue, and T. Yamada, 2004: Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation, Science, 305: 1138-1140.

Oleson, K.W., Y. Dai et al., 2004: Technical description of the Community Land Model (CLM), NCAR Technical Note NCAR/TN-461+STR, 173 pp.

Levis, S., G.B. Bonan, M. Vertenstein, and K.W. Oleson, 2004: The Community Land Model’s Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (CLM-DGVM): Technical description and user’s guide, NCAR Technical Note NCAR/TN-459+IA, 50 pp.

Oleson, K.W., G.B. Bonan, C. Schaaf, F. Gao, Y. Jin, and A. Strahler, 2003: Assessment of global climate model land surface albedo using MODIS data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, doi:10.1029/2002GL016749.

Dai, Y., X. Zeng, R.E. Dickinson, I. Baker, G.B. Bonan, M.G. Bosilovich, A.S. Denning, P.A. Dirmeyer, P.R. Houser, G. Niu, K.W. Oleson, C.A. Schlosser, and Z.-L. Yang, 2003: The Common Land Model (CLM), Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 84, doi:10.1175/BAMS-84-8-1013.

Bonan, G.B., S. Levis, S. Sitch, M. Vertenstein, and K.W. Oleson, 2003: A dynamic global vegetation model for use with climate models: concepts and description of simulated vegetation dynamics, Global Change Biol., 9, 1543-1566.

Bonan, G.B., K.W. Oleson, M. Vertenstein, S. Levis, X. Zeng, Y. Dai, R.E. Dickinson, and Z.-L. Yang, 2002: The land surface climatology of the Community Land Model coupled to the NCAR Community Climate Model, J. Climate, 15, 3123-3149.

Bonan, G.B., S. Levis, L. Kergoat, and K.W. Oleson, 2002: Landscapes as patches of plant functional types: an integrating concept for climate and ecosystem models, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 16, doi:10.1029/2000GB001360.

Oleson, K.W., and G.B. Bonan, 2000: The effects of remotely sensed plant functional type and leaf area index on simulations of boreal forest surface fluxes by the NCAR land surface model, J. Hydrometeorol., 1, 431-446.

Oleson, K.W., W.J. Emery, and J.A. Maslanik, 2000: Evaluating land surface parameters in the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme using remotely sensed data sets. J. Geophys. Res., 105, 7275-7293.

Oleson, K.W., K.L. Driese, J.A. Maslanik, W.J. Emery, and W.A. Reiners, 1997: The sensitivity of a land surface parameterization scheme to the choice of remotely-sensed land-cover datasets. Mon. Wea. Rev., 125, 1537-1555.

Oleson, K.W., S. Sarlin, J. Garrison, S. Smith, J.L. Privette, and W.J. Emery, 1995: Unmixing multiple land-cover type reflectances from coarse spatial resolution satellite data. Remote Sens. Environ., 54, 98-112.

Post-Doctoral Employment

• Project Scientist I, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, 02/04-present.
• Associate Scientist III, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, 08/02-present.
• Associate Scientist II, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, 05/00-7/02.
• Post Doc I and III, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, 1/99-4/00.
• Research Associate, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ., 06/98-12/98.
• Ph.D. Candidate (Research Assistant), Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 01/95-05/98.
• Various positions of increasing responsibility and stress culminated by my laying off everyone who worked for me and then getting laid off myself, Martin Marietta Astonautics Group, Space Simulation Laboratory, Waterton, Colorado, 1981-1993.