Argentia Topographica | The World of Naos

[morne]

Were those climates entirely generated by ExoPlaSim, or were there hand tweaks involved, too? Wondering because there are some funny bits in there--like the hot desert at ~45 N on the northeast continent but then tundra at 50 N on the next door crescent-shaped island; the low-altitude tundra on the big central continent that is equatorward of 45 S--that seem like the model might be missing something important.

In any case, still very cool, and impressive for a simulator!

I'll be the first to admit I'm the furthest thing from a climate expert (hence why I'm trying to get tools to generate things for me).

Technically, the climate zones themselves aren't generated by ExoPlaSim; the tool simulates climate and exports monthly/yearly data on precipitation, surface temperature, air pressure, and a ton of other data. So technically, from the perspective of the data generated, the climates are exactly within the definitions set by the koppen system. The tutorial from Worldbuilding Pasta that I followed also provided a python script to interpret the data and generate the climate zones, which also includes some methods of interpolation to add more detail to the final output, as explained in his tutorial. This includes interpolation of the base data as well as elevation-based adjustments using a high resolution DEM. My final climate map used both of these options.

The resolution that the simulation runs at is certainly a limited factor here, I'm creating a lot of data out of thin air via heavy interpolation---the simulation ran at a mere 64x128. There is also the major limitation of the model in that in does not simulate actual ocean currents (it uses a simpler slab model).

The raw koppen intepretation without any interpolation is this:



So, any oddities are probably a combination of any number of the above limitations.

That said, if you'll allow me to make some highly uneducated guesses/observations while referencing the data maps I posted on a previous page:

- There is a massive low pressure system that forms around the Himalaya-esque mountains on the North-Eastern continent, as well as very warm temperatures all year long. I imagine that has something to do with the major desert climate.
- Not sure about the low altitude tundra north of 45S. My guess is this has something to do with the lack of ocean currents being modelled? The global mean temperature of my world is a few degrees colder than earth too---about 13.8°C. That might contribute as well?

Ultimately it's a fantasy world and IMO easy enough to chalk up differences to earth climate to a number of completely unforeseeable differences to our own world (although I did model this simulation based off of Earthlike parameters) and still maintain a sense of verisimilitude. Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts on what could be improved.