A Perspective on Piers Sellers' Vision for the Greening of Global Models

Piers Sellers and I were introduced by Yale Mintz, shortly after Piers began working at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1982. Piers had visionary plans to model the role of terrestrial vegetation in the physical climate system. I was trying to model the atmospheric boundary layer, especially the diurnal cycle over land and its interaction with convective clouds. Unfortunately, the models I was working with then represented the land surface as a leaky bucket. Although I did not realize it at the time, I needed to collaborate with a terrestrial vegetation expert. Piers knew very well that he needed to collaborate with a boundary person. We began to work together, and that continued (with time out for space flight) until 2016. I will tell the story in Austin.