The influence of the land surface on hydrometeorology and ecology: new advances from modeling and satellite remote sensing

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 95-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venkat Lakshmi ◽  
Seungbum Hong ◽  
Eric E. Small ◽  
Fei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Land Surface Processes ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Vegetation Fraction ◽  
Moisture Variation

The importance of land surface processes has long been recognized in hydrometeorology and ecology for they play a key role in climate and weather modeling. However, their quantification has been challenging due to the complex nature of the land surface amongst other reasons. One of the difficult parts in the quantification is the effect of vegetation that are related to land surface processes such as soil moisture variation and to atmospheric conditions such as radiation. This study addresses various relational investigations among vegetation properties such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), surface temperature (TSK), and vegetation water content (VegWC) derived from satellite sensors such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and EOS Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E). The study provides general information about a physiological behavior of vegetation for various environmental conditions. Second, using a coupled mesoscale/land surface model, we examine the effects of vegetation and its relationship with soil moisture on the simulated land–atmospheric interactions through the model sensitivity tests. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was selected for this study, and the Noah land surface model (Noah LSM) implemented in the WRF model was used for the model coupled system. This coupled model was tested through two parameterization methods for vegetation fraction using MODIS data and through model initialization of soil moisture from High Resolution Land Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS). Finally, this study evaluates the model improvements for each simulation method.

Response of the surface climate to different land surface models: WRF sensitivity to surface model options

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela C.A. Lima ◽  
Rita M. Cardoso ◽  
Pedro M.M. Soares
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Land Surface Models ◽  
Land Surface Processes ◽  
Surface Models

<p>The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 4.2 includes different land surface schemes, allowing a better representation of the land surface processes. Four simulations with the WRF model differing in land surface models and options were investigated as a sensitivity study over the European domain. These experiments span from 2004-2006 with a one-month spin-up and were performed at 0.11<sup>o</sup> horizontal resolution with 50 vertical levels, following the CORDEX guidelines. The lateral boundary conditions were driven by ERA5 reanalysis from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. For the first experiment, the Noah land surface model was used. For the remaining simulations, the Noah-MP (multi-physics) land surface model was used with different runoff and groundwater options: (1) original surface and subsurface runoff (free drainage), (2) TOPMODEL with groundwater and (3) Miguez-Macho & Fan groundwater scheme. The physical parameterizations options are the same for all simulations. These experiments allow the analysis of the sensitivity of different land surface options and to understand how the representation of land surface processes impacts on the atmosphere properties. This study focusses on the investigation of land-atmosphere feedbacks trough the analysis of the soil moisture – temperature and soil moisture – precipitation interactions, latent and sensible heat fluxes, and moisture fluxes. The influence of different surface model options on atmospheric boundary layer is also explored.</p><p>Acknowledgements. The authors wish to acknowledge the LEADING (PTDC/CTA-MET/28914/2017) project funded by FCT. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support FCT through project UIDB/50019/2020 – Instituto Dom Luiz.</p>

Impact of GVF Derivation Methods on Noah Land Surface Model Simulations and WRF Model Forecasts

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 1917-1933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Fang ◽  
Xiwu Zhan ◽  
Christopher R. Hain ◽  
Jifu Yin ◽  
Jicheng Liu
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Vegetation Fraction ◽  
Data Products ◽  
Noah Land Surface Model

Abstract Green vegetation fraction (GVF) plays a crucial role in the atmosphere–land water and energy exchanges. It is one of the essential parameters in the Noah land surface model (LSM) that serves as the land component of a number of operational numerical weather prediction models at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of NOAA. The satellite GVF products used in NCEP models are derived from a simple linear conversion of either the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) currently or the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) planned for the near future. Since the NDVI or EVI is a simple spectral index of vegetation cover, GVFs derived from them may lack the biophysical meaning required in the Noah LSM. Moreover, the NDVI- or EVI-based GVF data products may be systematically biased over densely vegetated regions resulting from the saturation issue associated with spectral vegetation indices. On the other hand, the GVF is physically related to the leaf area index (LAI), and thus it could be beneficial to derive GVF from LAI data products. In this paper, the EVI-based and the LAI-based GVF derivation methods are mathematically analyzed and are found to be significantly different from each other. Impacts of GVF differences on the Noah LSM simulations and on weather forecasts of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model are further assessed. Results indicate that LAI-based GVF outperforms the EVI-based one when used in both the offline Noah LSM and WRF Model.

scholarly journals The effect of satellite-derived surface soil moisture and leaf area index land data assimilation on streamflow simulations over France

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 2015-2033 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fairbairn ◽  
Alina Lavinia Barbu ◽  
Adrien Napoly ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Jean-François Mahfouf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Leaf Area Index ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Area Index

Abstract. This study evaluates the impact of assimilating surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area index (LAI) observations into a land surface model using the SAFRAN–ISBA–MODCOU (SIM) hydrological suite. SIM consists of three stages: (1) an atmospheric reanalysis (SAFRAN) over France, which forces (2) the three-layer ISBA land surface model, which then provides drainage and runoff inputs to (3) the MODCOU hydro-geological model. The drainage and runoff outputs from ISBA are validated by comparing the simulated river discharge from MODCOU with over 500 river-gauge observations over France and with a subset of stations with low-anthropogenic influence, over several years. This study makes use of the A-gs version of ISBA that allows for physiological processes. The atmospheric forcing for the ISBA-A-gs model underestimates direct shortwave and long-wave radiation by approximately 5 % averaged over France. The ISBA-A-gs model also substantially underestimates the grassland LAI compared with satellite retrievals during winter dormancy. These differences result in an underestimation (overestimation) of evapotranspiration (drainage and runoff). The excess runoff flowing into the rivers and aquifers contributes to an overestimation of the SIM river discharge. Two experiments attempted to resolve these problems: (i) a correction of the minimum LAI model parameter for grasslands and (ii) a bias-correction of the model radiative forcing. Two data assimilation experiments were also performed, which are designed to correct random errors in the initial conditions: (iii) the assimilation of LAI observations and (iv) the assimilation of SSM and LAI observations. The data assimilation for (iii) and (iv) was done with a simplified extended Kalman filter (SEKF), which uses finite differences in the observation operator Jacobians to relate the observations to the model variables. Experiments (i) and (ii) improved the median SIM Nash scores by about 9 % and 18 % respectively. Experiment (iii) reduced the LAI phase errors in ISBA-A-gs but had little impact on the discharge Nash efficiency of SIM. In contrast, experiment (iv) resulted in spurious increases in drainage and runoff, which degraded the median discharge Nash efficiency by about 7 %. The poor performance of the SEKF originates from the observation operator Jacobians. These Jacobians are dampened when the soil is saturated and when the vegetation is dormant, which leads to positive biases in drainage and/or runoff and to insufficient corrections during winter, respectively. Possible ways to improve the model are discussed, including a new multi-layer diffusion model and a more realistic response of photosynthesis to temperature in mountainous regions. The data assimilation should be advanced by accounting for model and forcing uncertainties.

scholarly journals The Influence of Assimilating Leaf Area Index in a Land Surface Model on Global Water Fluxes and Storages

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinxuan Zhang ◽  
Viviana Maggioni ◽  
Azbina Rahman ◽  
Paul Houser ◽  
Yuan Xue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Leaf Area Index ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. Vegetation plays a fundamental role not only in the energy and carbon cycle, but also the global water balance by controlling surface evapotranspiration. Thus, accurately estimating vegetation-related variables has the potential to improve our understanding and estimation of the dynamic interactions between the water and carbon cycles. This study aims to assess to what extent a land surface model can be optimized through the assimilation of leaf area index (LAI) observations at the global scale. Two observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) are performed to evaluate the efficiency of assimilating LAI through an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) to estimate LAI, evapotranspiration (ET), interception evaporation (CIE), canopy water storage (CWS), surface soil moisture (SSM), and terrestrial water storage (TWS). Results show that the LAI data assimilation framework effectively reduces errors in LAI simulations. LAI assimilation also improves the model estimates of all the water flux and storage variables considered in this study (ET, CIE, CWS, SSM, and TWS), even when the forcing precipitation is strongly positively biased (extremely wet condition). However, it tends to worsen some of the model estimated water-related variables (SSM and TWS) when the forcing precipitation is affected by a dry bias. This is attributed to the fact that the amount of water in the land surface model is conservative and the LAI assimilation introduces more vegetation, which requires more water than what available within the soil. Future work should investigate a multi-variate data assimilation system that concurrently merges both LAI and soil moisture (or TWS) observations.

Evaluation of the Noah Land Surface Model Using Data from a Fair-Weather IHOP_2002 Day with Heterogeneous Surface Fluxes

2008 ◽  
Vol 136 (12) ◽  
pp. 4915-4941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. LeMone ◽  
Mukul Tewari ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
Joseph G. Alfieri ◽  
Dev Niyogi
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Minor Effect ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Vegetation Fraction ◽  
A Value ◽  
Green Vegetation ◽  
Noah Land Surface Model

Abstract Sources of differences between observations and simulations for a case study using the Noah land surface model–based High-Resolution Land Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS) are examined for sensible and latent heat fluxes H and LE, respectively; surface temperature Ts; and vertical temperature difference T0 − Ts, where T0 is at 2 m. The observational data were collected on 29 May 2002, using the University of Wyoming King Air and four surface towers placed along a sparsely vegetated 60-km north–south flight track in the Oklahoma Panhandle. This day had nearly clear skies and a strong north–south soil-moisture gradient, with wet soils and widespread puddles at the south end of the track and drier soils to the north. Relative amplitudes of H and LE horizontal variation were estimated by taking the slope of the least squares best-fit straight line ΔLE/ΔH on plots of time-averaged LE as a function of time-averaged H for values along the track. It is argued that observed H and LE values departing significantly from their slope line are not associated with surface processes and, hence, need not be replicated by HRLDAS. Reasonable agreement between HRLDAS results and observed data was found only after adjusting the coefficient C in the Zilitinkevich equation relating the roughness lengths for momentum and heat in HRLDAS from its default value of 0.1 to a new value of 0.5. Using C = 0.1 and adjusting soil moisture to match the observed near-surface values increased horizontal variability in the right sense, raising LE and lowering H over the moist south end. However, both the magnitude of H and the amplitude of its horizontal variability relative to LE remained too large; adjustment of the green vegetation fraction had only a minor effect. With C = 0.5, model-input green vegetation fraction, and our best-estimate soil moisture, H, LE, ΔLE/ΔH, and T0 − Ts, were all close to observed values. The remaining inconsistency between model and observations—too high a value of H and too low a value of LE over the wet southern end of the track—could be due to HRLDAS ignoring the effect of open water. Neglecting the effect of moist soils on the albedo could also have contributed.

scholarly journals ERA-5 and ERA-Interim driven ISBA land surface model simulations: which one performs better?

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 3515-3532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement Albergel ◽  
Emanuel Dutra ◽  
Simon Munier ◽  
Jean-Christophe Calvet ◽  
Joaquin Munoz-Sabater ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Snow Depth ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
In Situ Observations

Abstract. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) recently released the first 7-year segment of its latest atmospheric reanalysis: ERA-5 over the period 2010–2016. ERA-5 has important changes relative to the former ERA-Interim atmospheric reanalysis including higher spatial and temporal resolutions as well as a more recent model and data assimilation system. ERA-5 is foreseen to replace ERA-Interim reanalysis and one of the main goals of this study is to assess whether ERA-5 can enhance the simulation performances with respect to ERA-Interim when it is used to force a land surface model (LSM). To that end, both ERA-5 and ERA-Interim are used to force the ISBA (Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere) LSM fully coupled with the Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (TRIP) scheme adapted for the CNRM (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques) continental hydrological system within the SURFEX (SURFace Externalisée) modelling platform of Météo-France. Simulations cover the 2010–2016 period at half a degree spatial resolution. The ERA-5 impact on ISBA LSM relative to ERA-Interim is evaluated using remote sensing and in situ observations covering a substantial part of the land surface storage and fluxes over the continental US domain. The remote sensing observations include (i) satellite-driven model estimates of land evapotranspiration, (ii) upscaled ground-based observations of gross primary production, (iii) satellite-derived estimates of surface soil moisture and (iv) satellite-derived estimates of leaf area index (LAI). The in situ observations cover (i) soil moisture, (ii) turbulent heat fluxes, (iii) river discharges and (iv) snow depth. ERA-5 leads to a consistent improvement over ERA-Interim as verified by the use of these eight independent observations of different land status and of the model simulations forced by ERA-5 when compared with ERA-Interim. This is particularly evident for the land surface variables linked to the terrestrial hydrological cycle, while variables linked to vegetation are less impacted. Results also indicate that while precipitation provides, to a large extent, improvements in surface fields (e.g. large improvement in the representation of river discharge and snow depth), the other atmospheric variables play an important role, contributing to the overall improvements. These results highlight the importance of enhanced meteorological forcing quality provided by the new ERA-5 reanalysis, which will pave the way for a new generation of land-surface developments and applications.

scholarly journals Toward High-Resolution Soil Moisture Monitoring by Combining Active-Passive Microwave and Optical Vegetation Remote Sensing Products with Land Surface Model

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (18) ◽  
pp. 3924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toride ◽  
Sawada ◽  
Aida ◽  
Koike
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Coarse Resolution ◽  
Fine Resolution

The assimilation of radiometer and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data is a promising recent technique to downscale soil moisture products, yet it requires land surface parameters and meteorological forcing data at a high spatial resolution. In this study, we propose a new downscaling approach, named integrated passive and active downscaling (I-PAD), to achieve high spatial and temporal resolution soil moisture datasets over regions without detailed soil data. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) and Phased Array-type L-band SAR (PALSAR) data are combined through a dual-pass land data assimilation system to obtain soil moisture at 1 km resolution. In the first step, fine resolution model parameters are optimized based on fine resolution PALSAR soil moisture and moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) leaf area index data, and coarse resolution AMSR-E brightness temperature data. Then, the 25 km AMSR-E observations are assimilated into a land surface model at 1 km resolution with a simple but computationally low-cost algorithm that considers the spatial resolution difference. Precipitation data are used as the only inputs from ground measurements. The evaluations at the two lightly vegetated sites in Mongolia and the Little Washita basin show that the time series of soil moisture are improved at most of the observation by the assimilation scheme. The analyses reveal that I-PAD can capture overall spatial trends of soil moisture within the coarse resolution radiometer footprints, demonstrating the potential of the algorithm to be applied over data-sparse regions. The capability and limitation are discussed based on the simple optimization and assimilation schemes used in the algorithm.

scholarly journals Towards Effective Drought Monitoring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region: Implications from Assimilating Leaf Area Index and Soil Moisture into the Noah-MP Land Surface Model for Morocco

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanshu Nie ◽  
Sujay V. Kumar ◽  
Kristi R. Arsenault ◽  
Christa D. Peters-Lidard ◽  
Iliana E. Mladenova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Carbon Fluxes ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Area Index

Abstract. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has experienced more frequent and severe drought events in recent decades, leading to increasingly pressing concerns over already strained food and water security. An effective drought monitoring and early warning system is thus critical to support risk mitigation and management by countries in the region. Here we investigate the potential for assimilation of leaf area index (LAI) and soil moisture observations to improve representation of the overall hydrological and carbon cycles and drought by an advanced land surface model. The results reveal that assimilating soil moisture does not meaningfully improve model representation of the hydrological and biospheric processes for this region, but rather it degrades simulation of interannual variation of evapotranspiration (ET) and carbon fluxes, mainly due to model weaknesses in representing dynamic phenology. However, assimilating LAI leads to greater improvement, especially for transpiration and carbon fluxes, by constraining the timing of simulated vegetation growth response to evolving climate conditions. LAI assimilation also helps to correct for the erroneous interaction between the dynamic phenology and irrigation during summertime, effectively reducing a large positive bias in ET and carbon fluxes. Independently assimilating LAI or soil moisture alters the categorization of drought, with the differences being greater for more severe drought categories. We highlight the vegetation representation in response to changing land use and hydroclimate as one of the key processes to be captured for building a successful drought early warning system for the MENA region.

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