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Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2018) | Viewed by 53227

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Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CNRM, Meteo-France, 42 avenue Gaspard Coriolis, 31057 Toulouse, France
Interests: land surface modeling; remote sensing; data assimilation; hydrometeorology; carbon cycle

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Guest Editor
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Coupled Assimilation Team, Earth System Assimilation Section, Research Department, Reading, UK
Interests: numerical weather prediction; remote sensing; land data assimilation; coupled assimilation; soil moisture; snow; hydrology
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Guest Editor
1. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
2. Physical Sciences Division (PSD) at the Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)
Interests: ocean data assimilation; coupled-model data assimilation; dynamical systems; ensemble

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Earth system approaches are emerging for a number of applications, including numerical weather prediction, hydrological forecast, climate impact studies, ocean dynamics, carbon cycle monitoring, etc. They rely on coupled modelling techniques, using Earth system models (ESMs) that account for an increased level of complexity of (coupled) processes and interactions between atmosphere, ocean, sea-ice and terrestrial surfaces. A crucial component of Earth System approaches is the development of coupled assimilation of satellite observations to ensure consistent initialization at the interface between the different sub-systems. For example, a coupled ocean-atmosphere data assimilation system ensures consistent sea surface temperature and near surface atmospheric conditions and coupled land-atmosphere assimilation produces consistent soil moisture and air temperature analyses.

There is a large range of coupled data assimilation (CDA) approaches, from weakly coupled (coupled first guess model but separate analyses) to strongly coupled assimilation (single cost function and control vector). Intermediate levels of coupling (quasi-CDA) allow observations in one subsystem to provide increments in other subsystems. CDA development in ESMs will open possibilities to further exploit satellite observations that are sensitive to both the lowest levels of the atmosphere and the underlying system (land, urban surfaces, ocean or sea-ice). 

The integration of satellite-derived observations into ESMs or into ESM modules can also help minimize modeling uncertainties. The assimilation of new remote sensing products is expected to benefit to a wide range of applications, including weather, subseasonal to seasonal, seasonal, and interannual climate prediction, and climate reanalysis. Satellite-derived climate data records of essential climate variables are now available for the different components of the Earth system, including terrestrial and ocean surfaces. Some cover more than three decades.

In this Special Issue, we welcome studies on assimilation of satellite observations in models and presenting the most recent advances in, 

  • ESM reanalysis incorporating satellite-derived observations,
  • Land reanalysis,
  • Ocean and sea ice reanalysis,
  • Coupled data assimilation,
  • Uncertainty characterization of ESMs and satellite-derived essential climate variables.

Dr. Jean-Christophe Calvet
Dr. Patricia De Rosnay
Dr. Stephen G. Penny
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 176 KiB  
Editorial
Editorial for the Special Issue “Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models”
by Jean-Christophe Calvet, Patricia de Rosnay and Stephen G. Penny
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(18), 2177; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11182177 - 19 Sep 2019
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2464
Abstract
This Special Issue is a collection of papers reporting research on various aspects of coupled data assimilation in Earth system models. It includes contributions presenting recent progress in ocean–atmosphere, land–atmosphere, and soil–vegetation data assimilation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

22 pages, 5023 KiB  
Article
Data-Driven Interpolation of Sea Level Anomalies Using Analog Data Assimilation
by Redouane Lguensat, Phi Huynh Viet, Miao Sun, Ge Chen, Tian Fenglin, Bertrand Chapron and Ronan Fablet
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(7), 858; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11070858 - 09 Apr 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4192
Abstract
From the recent developments of data-driven methods as a means to better exploit large-scale observation, simulation and reanalysis datasets for solving inverse problems, this study addresses the improvement of the reconstruction of higher-resolution Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) fields using analog strategies. This reconstruction [...] Read more.
From the recent developments of data-driven methods as a means to better exploit large-scale observation, simulation and reanalysis datasets for solving inverse problems, this study addresses the improvement of the reconstruction of higher-resolution Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) fields using analog strategies. This reconstruction is stated as an analog data assimilation issue, where the analog models rely on patch-based and Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF)-based representations to circumvent the curse of dimensionality. We implement an Observation System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) in the South China Sea. The reported results show the relevance of the proposed framework with a significant gain in terms of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for scales below 100 km. We further discuss the usefulness of the proposed analog model as a means to exploit high-resolution model simulations for the processing and analysis of current and future satellite-derived altimetric data with regard to conventional interpolation schemes, especially optimal interpolation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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19 pages, 2188 KiB  
Article
Soil Moisture Variability in India: Relationship of Land Surface–Atmosphere Fields Using Maximum Covariance Analysis
by Kishore Pangaluru, Isabella Velicogna, Geruo A, Yara Mohajerani, Enrico Ciracì, Sravani Charakola, Ghouse Basha and S. Vijaya Bhaskara Rao
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 335; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030335 - 08 Feb 2019
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 4682
Abstract
This study investigates the spatial and temporal variability of the soil moisture in India using Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) gridded datasets from June 2002 to April 2017. Significant relationships between soil moisture and different land surface–atmosphere fields (Precipitation, surface air [...] Read more.
This study investigates the spatial and temporal variability of the soil moisture in India using Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) gridded datasets from June 2002 to April 2017. Significant relationships between soil moisture and different land surface–atmosphere fields (Precipitation, surface air temperature, total cloud cover, and total water storage) were studied, using maximum covariance analysis (MCA) to extract dominant interactions that maximize the covariance between two fields. The first leading mode of MCA explained 56%, 87%, 81%, and 79% of the squared covariance function (SCF) between soil moisture with precipitation (PR), surface air temperature (TEM), total cloud count (TCC), and total water storage (TWS), respectively, with correlation coefficients of 0.65, −0.72, 0.71, and 0.62. Furthermore, the covariance analysis of total water storage showed contrasting patterns with soil moisture, especially over northwest, northeast, and west coast regions. In addition, the spatial distribution of seasonal and annual trends of soil moisture in India was estimated using a robust regression technique for the very first time. For most regions in India, significant positive trends were noticed in all seasons. Meanwhile, a small negative trend was observed over southern India. The monthly mean value of AMSR soil moisture trend revealed a significant positive trend, at about 0.0158 cm3/cm3 per decade during the period ranging from 2002 to 2017. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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19 pages, 3662 KiB  
Article
Assimilation of GPSRO Bending Angle Profiles into the Brazilian Global Atmospheric Model
by Ivette H. Banos, Luiz F. Sapucci, Lidia Cucurull, Carlos F. Bastarz and Bruna B. Silveira
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 256; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030256 - 28 Jan 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3085
Abstract
The Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) technique allows valuable information to be obtained about the state of the atmosphere through vertical profiles obtained at various processing levels. From the point of view of data assimilation, there is a consensus that less [...] Read more.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) technique allows valuable information to be obtained about the state of the atmosphere through vertical profiles obtained at various processing levels. From the point of view of data assimilation, there is a consensus that less processed data are preferable because of their lowest addition of uncertainties in the process. In the GPSRO context, bending angle data are better to assimilate than refractivity or atmospheric profiles; however, these data have not been properly explored by data assimilation at the CPTEC (acronym in Portuguese for Center for Weather Forecast and Climate Studies). In this study, the benefits and possible deficiencies of the CPTEC modeling system for this data source are investigated. Three numerical experiments were conducted, assimilating bending angles and refractivity profiles in the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) system coupled with the Brazilian Global Atmospheric Model (BAM). The results highlighted the need for further studies to explore the representation of meteorological systems at the higher levels of the BAM model. Nevertheless, more benefits were achieved using bending angle data compared with the results obtained assimilating refractivity profiles. The highest gain was in the data usage exploring 73.4% of the potential of the RO technique when bending angles are assimilated. Additionally, gains of 3.5% and 2.5% were found in the root mean square error values in the zonal and meridional wind components and geopotencial height at 250 hPa, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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24 pages, 10643 KiB  
Article
Weakly Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Data Assimilation in the ECMWF NWP System
by Philip A. Browne, Patricia de Rosnay, Hao Zuo, Andrew Bennett and Andrew Dawson
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 234; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030234 - 23 Jan 2019
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 5949
Abstract
Numerical weather prediction models are including an increasing number of components of the Earth system. In particular, every forecast now issued by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) runs with a 3D ocean model and a sea ice model below the [...] Read more.
Numerical weather prediction models are including an increasing number of components of the Earth system. In particular, every forecast now issued by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) runs with a 3D ocean model and a sea ice model below the atmosphere. Initialisation of different components using different methods and on different timescales can lead to inconsistencies when they are combined in the full system. Historically, the methods for initialising the ocean and the atmosphere have been typically developed separately. This paper describes an approach for combining the existing ocean and atmospheric analyses into what we categorise as a weakly coupled assimilation scheme. Here, we show the performance improvements achieved for the atmosphere by having a weakly coupled ocean–atmosphere assimilation system compared with an uncoupled system. Using numerical weather prediction diagnostics, we show that forecast errors are decreased compared with forecasts initialised from an uncoupled analysis. Further, a detailed investigation into spatial coverage of sea ice concentration in the Baltic Sea shows that a much more realistic structure is obtained by the weakly coupled analysis. By introducing the weakly coupled ocean–atmosphere analysis, the ocean analysis becomes a critical part of the numerical weather prediction system and provides a platform from which to build ever stronger forms of analysis coupling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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27 pages, 5768 KiB  
Article
Assessing Hydrological Modelling Driven by Different Precipitation Datasets via the SMAP Soil Moisture Product and Gauged Streamflow Data
by Lu Yi, Wanchang Zhang and Xiangyang Li
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(12), 1872; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10121872 - 23 Nov 2018
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3427
Abstract
To compare the effectivenesses of different precipitation datasets on hydrological modelling, five precipitation datasets derived from various approaches were used to simulate a two-week runoff process after a heavy rainfall event in the Wangjiaba (WJB) watershed, which covers an area of 30,000 km [...] Read more.
To compare the effectivenesses of different precipitation datasets on hydrological modelling, five precipitation datasets derived from various approaches were used to simulate a two-week runoff process after a heavy rainfall event in the Wangjiaba (WJB) watershed, which covers an area of 30,000 km2 in eastern China. The five precipitation datasets contained one traditional in situ observation, two satellite products, and two predictions obtained from the Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. They were the station observations collected from the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM IMERG), the merged data of the Climate Prediction Center Morphing (merged CMORPH), and the outputs of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and the WRF four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation system, respectively. Apart from the outlet discharge, the simulated soil moisture was also assessed via the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) product. These investigations suggested that (1) all the five precipitation datasets could yield reasonable simulations of the studied rainfall-runoff process. The Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients reached the highest value (0.658) with the in situ CMA precipitation and the lowest value (0.464) with the WRF-predicted precipitation. (2) The traditional in situ observation were still the most reliable precipitation data to simulate the study case, whereas the two NWP-predicted precipitation datasets performed the worst. Nevertheless, the NWP-predicted precipitation is irreplaceable in hydrological modelling because of its fine spatiotemporal resolutions and ability to forecast precipitation in the future. (3) Gauge correction and 4D-Var data assimilation had positive impacts on improving the accuracies of the merged CMORPH and the WRF 4D-Var prediction, respectively, but the effectiveness of the latter on the rainfall-runoff simulation was mainly weakened by the poor quality of the GPM IMERG used in the study case. This study provides a reference for the applications of different precipitation datasets, including in situ observations, remote sensing estimations and NWP simulations, in hydrological modelling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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24 pages, 8066 KiB  
Article
LDAS-Monde Sequential Assimilation of Satellite Derived Observations Applied to the Contiguous US: An ERA-5 Driven Reanalysis of the Land Surface Variables
by Clement Albergel, Simon Munier, Aymeric Bocher, Bertrand Bonan, Yongjun Zheng, Clara Draper, Delphine J. Leroux and Jean-Christophe Calvet
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(10), 1627; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10101627 - 12 Oct 2018
Cited by 43 | Viewed by 5417
Abstract
Land data assimilation system (LDAS)-Monde, an offline land data assimilation system with global capacity, is applied over the CONtiguous US (CONUS) domain to enhance monitoring accuracy for water and energy states and fluxes. LDAS-Monde ingests satellite-derived surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area [...] Read more.
Land data assimilation system (LDAS)-Monde, an offline land data assimilation system with global capacity, is applied over the CONtiguous US (CONUS) domain to enhance monitoring accuracy for water and energy states and fluxes. LDAS-Monde ingests satellite-derived surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area index (LAI) estimates to constrain the interactions between soil, biosphere, and atmosphere (ISBA) land surface model (LSM) coupled with the CNRM (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques) version of the total runoff integrating pathways (CTRIP) continental hydrological system (ISBA-CTRIP). LDAS-Monde is forced by the ERA-5 atmospheric reanalysis from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) from 2010 to 2016 leading to a seven-year, quarter degree spatial resolution offline reanalysis of land surface variables (LSVs) over CONUS. The impact of assimilating LAI and SSM into LDAS-Monde is assessed over North America, by comparison to satellite-driven model estimates of land evapotranspiration from the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) project, and upscaled ground-based observations of gross primary productivity from the FLUXCOM project. Taking advantage of the relatively dense data networks over CONUS, we have also evaluated the impact of the assimilation against in situ measurements of soil moisture from the USCRN (US Climate Reference Network), together with river discharges from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC). Those data sets highlight the added value of assimilating satellite derived observations compared with an open-loop simulation (i.e., no assimilation). It is shown that LDAS-Monde has the ability not only to monitor land surface variables but also to forecast them, by providing improved initial conditions, which impacts persist through time. LDAS-Monde reanalysis also has the potential to be used to monitor extreme events like agricultural drought. Finally, limitations related to LDAS-Monde and current satellite-derived observations are exposed as well as several insights on how to use alternative datasets to analyze soil moisture and vegetation state. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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21 pages, 4668 KiB  
Article
Using Satellite-Derived Vegetation Products to Evaluate LDAS-Monde over the Euro-Mediterranean Area
by Delphine Jennifer Leroux, Jean-Christophe Calvet, Simon Munier and Clément Albergel
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(8), 1199; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10081199 - 31 Jul 2018
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3322
Abstract
Within a global Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS-Monde), satellite-derived Surface Soil Moisture (SSM) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) products are jointly assimilated with a focus on the Euro-Mediterranean region at 0.5 resolution between 2007 and 2015 to improve the monitoring quality of [...] Read more.
Within a global Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS-Monde), satellite-derived Surface Soil Moisture (SSM) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) products are jointly assimilated with a focus on the Euro-Mediterranean region at 0.5 resolution between 2007 and 2015 to improve the monitoring quality of land surface variables. These products are assimilated in the CO2 responsive version of ISBA (Interactions between Soil, Biosphere and Atmosphere) land surface model, which is able to represent the vegetation processes including the functional relationship between stomatal aperture and photosynthesis, plant growth and mortality (ISBA-A-gs). This study shows the positive impact on SSM and LAI simulations through assimilating their satellite-derived counterparts into the model. Using independent flux estimates related to vegetation dynamics (evapotranspiration, Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) and Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)), it is also shown that simulated water and CO2 fluxes are improved with the assimilation. These vegetation products tend to have higher root-mean-square deviations in summer when their values are also at their highest, representing 20–35% of their absolute values. Moreover, the connection between SIF and GPP is investigated, showing a linear relationship depending on the vegetation type with correlation coefficient values larger than 0.8, which is further improved by the assimilation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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20 pages, 5672 KiB  
Article
Quantifying Drought Propagation from Soil Moisture to Vegetation Dynamics Using a Newly Developed Ecohydrological Land Reanalysis
by Yohei Sawada
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(8), 1197; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10081197 - 30 Jul 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4148
Abstract
Despite the importance of the interaction between soil moisture and vegetation dynamics to understand the complex nature of drought, few land reanalyses explicitly simulate vegetation growth and senescence. In this study, I provide a new land reanalysis which explicitly simulates the interaction between [...] Read more.
Despite the importance of the interaction between soil moisture and vegetation dynamics to understand the complex nature of drought, few land reanalyses explicitly simulate vegetation growth and senescence. In this study, I provide a new land reanalysis which explicitly simulates the interaction between sub-surface soil moisture and vegetation dynamics by the sequential assimilation of satellite microwave brightness temperature observations into a land surface model (LSM). Assimilating satellite microwave brightness temperature observations improves the skill of a LSM to simultaneously simulate soil moisture and the seasonal cycle of leaf area index (LAI). By analyzing soil moisture and LAI simulated by this new land reanalysis, I identify the drought events which significantly damage LAI on the climatological day-of-year of the LAI’s seasonal peak and quantify drought propagation from soil moisture to LAI in the global snow-free region. On average, soil moisture in the shallow soil layers (0–0.45 m) quickly recovers from the drought condition before the climatological day-of-year of the LAI’s seasonal peak while soil moisture in the deeper soil layer (1.05–2.05 m) and LAI recover from the drought condition approximately 100 days after the climatological day-of-year of the LAI’s seasonal peak. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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25 pages, 3641 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Heavy Precipitation Simulated by the WRF Model Using 4D-Var Data Assimilation with TRMM 3B42 and GPM IMERG over the Huaihe River Basin, China
by Lu Yi, Wanchang Zhang and Kai Wang
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(4), 646; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10040646 - 22 Apr 2018
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 5781
Abstract
To obtain independent, consecutive, and high-resolution precipitation data, the four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) method was applied to directly assimilate satellite precipitation products into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The precipitation products of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 3B42 (TRMM 3B42) and its [...] Read more.
To obtain independent, consecutive, and high-resolution precipitation data, the four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) method was applied to directly assimilate satellite precipitation products into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The precipitation products of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 3B42 (TRMM 3B42) and its successor, the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM IMERG) were assimilated in this study. Two heavy precipitation events that occurred over the Huaihe River basin in eastern China were studied. Before assimilation, the WRF model simulations were first performed with different forcing data to select more suitable forcing data and determine the control experiments for the subsequent assimilation experiments. Then, TRMM 3B42 and GPM IMERG were separately assimilated into the WRF. The simulated precipitation results in the outer domain (D01), with a 27-km resolution, and the inner domain (D02), with a 9-km resolution, were evaluated in detail. The assessments showed that (1) 4D-Var with TRMM 3B42 or GPM IMERG could both significantly improve WRF precipitation predictions at a time interval of approximately 12 h; (2) the WRF simulated precipitation assimilated with GPM IMERG outperformed the one with TRMM 3B42; (3) for the WRF output precipitation assimilated with GPM IMERG over D02, which has spatiotemporal resolutions of 9 km and 50 s, the correlation coefficients of the studied events in August and November were 0.74 and 0.51, respectively, at the point and daily scales, and the mean Heidke skill scores for the two studied events both reached 0.31 at the grid and hourly scales. This study can provide references for the assimilation of TRMM 3B42 or GPM IMERG into the WRF model using 4D-Var, which is especially valuable for hydrological applications of GPM IMERG during the transition period from the TRMM era into the GPM era. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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21 pages, 2731 KiB  
Article
Exploiting Satellite-Based Surface Soil Moisture for Flood Forecasting in the Mediterranean Area: State Update Versus Rainfall Correction
by Christian Massari, Stefania Camici, Luca Ciabatta and Luca Brocca
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(2), 292; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10020292 - 13 Feb 2018
Cited by 90 | Viewed by 9211
Abstract
Many satellite soil moisture products are today globally available in near real-time. These observations are of paramount importance for enhancing the understanding of the hydrological cycle and particularly useful for flood forecasting purposes. In recent decades, several studies assimilated satellite soil moisture observations [...] Read more.
Many satellite soil moisture products are today globally available in near real-time. These observations are of paramount importance for enhancing the understanding of the hydrological cycle and particularly useful for flood forecasting purposes. In recent decades, several studies assimilated satellite soil moisture observations into rainfall-runoff models to improve their flood forecasting skills. The rationale is that a better representation of the catchment states leads to a better stream flow estimation. By exploiting the strong physical connection between the soil moisture dynamic and rainfall, some recent studies demonstrated that satellite soil moisture observations can be also used for enhancing the quality of rainfall observations. Given that the quality of the rainfall is one of the main drivers of the hydrological model uncertainty, this begs the question—to what extent updating soil moisture states leads to better flood forecasting skills than correcting rainfall forcing? In this study, we try to answer this question by using rainfall-runoff observations from 10 catchments throughout the Mediterranean area and a continuous rainfall-runoff model—MISDc—forced with reanalysis- and satellite-based rainfall observations. Satellite soil moisture retrievals from the Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) are either assimilated into MISDc model via the Ensemble Kalman filter to update model states or, alternatively, used to correct rainfall observations derived from a reanalysis and a satellite-based product through the integration with soil moisture-based rainfall estimates. 4–9 years (depending on the catchment) of stream flow observations are organized into calibration and validation periods to test the two different schemes. Results show that the rainfall correction is favourable if the target is the predictions of high flows while for low flows there is a small advantage of the state correction scheme with respect to the rainfall correction. The improvements for high flows are particularly large when the quality of the rainfall is relatively poor with important implications for large-scale flood forecasting in the Mediterranean area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Earth System Models)
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