scholarly journals An Ensemble Square Root Filter for the joint assimilation of surface soil moiture and leaf area index within LDAS-Monde: application over the Euro-Mediterranean region

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Bonan ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Yongjun Zheng ◽  
Alina Lavinia Barbu ◽  
David Fairbairn ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper introduces an Ensemble Square Root Filter (EnSRF), a deterministic Ensemble Kalman Filter, to the context of assimilating jointly observations of surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area index (LAI) in the Land Data Assimilation System LDAS-Monde. By ingesting those satellite-derived products, LDAS-Monde constrains the Interaction 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), to improve the reanalysis of land surface variables (LSVs). To evaluate its ability to produce improved LSVs reanalyses, the EnSRF is compared with the Simplified Extended Kalman, which has been routinely operated in LDAS-Monde, in a real case over the well-studied Euro-Mediterranean region at a 0.25° spatial resolution between 2008 and 2017. Both data assimilation approaches provide a positive impact on SSM and LAI estimates with respect to the model alone, putting them closer to assimilated observations. SEKF and EnSRF have a similar behaviour for LAI showing performances that are influenced by the vegetation type. For SSM, EnSRF estimates tend to be closer to observations than SEKF. The impact of assimilating SSM and LAI is also assessed on unobserved soil moisture in the other layers of soil. Unobserved control variables are updated in the EnSRF through covariances and correlations sampled from the ensemble linking them to observed control variables. In our context, a strong correlation between SSM and soil moisture in deeper soil layers is exhibited, as expected, showing seasonal patterns that vary geographically. Moderate correlation and anti-correlations are also noticed between LAI and soil moisture in spring, summer and autumn, their absolute value tending to be larger for soil moisture in root-zone areas, showing that assimilating LAI can have an influence on soil moisture. Finally an independent evaluation of both assimilation approaches is conducted using satellite estimates of evapotranspiration and gross primary production (GPP) as well as measures of river discharges from gauging stations. The EnSRF shows a systematic albeit moderate improvement for evapotranspiration and GPP and a highly positive impact on river discharges, while the SEKF exhibits a more contrasting performance.

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 2015-2033 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fairbairn ◽  
Alina Lavinia Barbu ◽  
Adrien Napoly ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Jean-François Mahfouf ◽  
...  

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 325-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Bonan ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Yongjun Zheng ◽  
Alina Lavinia Barbu ◽  
David Fairbairn ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper introduces an ensemble square root filter (EnSRF) in the context of jointly assimilating observations of surface soil moisture (SSM) and the leaf area index (LAI) in the Land Data Assimilation System LDAS-Monde. By ingesting those satellite-derived products, LDAS-Monde constrains the Interaction 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) model to improve the reanalysis of land surface variables (LSVs). To evaluate its ability to produce improved LSVs reanalyses, the EnSRF is compared with the simplified extended Kalman filter (SEKF), which has been well studied within the LDAS-Monde framework. The comparison is carried out over the Euro-Mediterranean region at a 0.25∘ spatial resolution between 2008 and 2017. Both data assimilation approaches provide a positive impact on SSM and LAI estimates with respect to the model alone, putting them closer to assimilated observations. The SEKF and the EnSRF have a similar behaviour for LAI showing performance levels that are influenced by the vegetation type. For SSM, EnSRF estimates tend to be closer to observations than SEKF values. The comparison between the two data assimilation approaches is also carried out on unobserved soil moisture in the other layers of soil. Unobserved control variables are updated in the EnSRF through covariances and correlations sampled from the ensemble linking them to observed control variables. In our context, a strong correlation between SSM and soil moisture in deeper soil layers is found, as expected, showing seasonal patterns that vary geographically. Moderate correlation and anti-correlations are also noticed between LAI and soil moisture, varying in space and time. Their absolute value, reaching their maximum in summer and their minimum in winter, tends to be larger for soil moisture in root-zone areas, showing that assimilating LAI can have an influence on soil moisture. Finally an independent evaluation of both assimilation approaches is conducted using satellite estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary production (GPP) as well as measures of river discharges from gauging stations. The EnSRF shows a systematic albeit moderate improvement of root mean square differences (RMSDs) and correlations for ET and GPP products, but its main improvement is observed on river discharges with a high positive impact on Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency scores. Compared to the EnSRF, the SEKF displays a more contrasting performance.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinxuan Zhang ◽  
Viviana Maggioni ◽  
Azbina Rahman ◽  
Paul Houser ◽  
Yuan Xue ◽  
...  

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. L. Barbu ◽  
J.-C. Calvet ◽  
J.-F. Mahfouf ◽  
S. Lafont

Abstract. The land monitoring service of the European Copernicus programme has developed a set of satellite-based biogeophysical products, including surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area index (LAI). This study investigates the impact of joint assimilation of remotely sensed SSM derived from Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) backscatter data and the Copernicus Global Land GEOV1 satellite-based LAI product into the the vegetation growth version of the Interactions between Soil Biosphere Atmosphere (ISBA-A-gs) land surface model within the the externalised surface model (SURFEX) modelling platform of Météo-France. The ASCAT data were bias corrected with respect to the model climatology by using a seasonal-based CDF (Cumulative Distribution Function) matching technique. A multivariate multi-scale land data assimilation system (LDAS) based on the extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is used for monitoring the soil moisture, terrestrial vegetation, surface carbon and energy fluxes across the domain of France at a spatial resolution of 8 km. Each model grid box is divided into a number of land covers, each having its own set of prognostic variables. The filter algorithm is designed to provide a distinct analysis for each land cover while using one observation per grid box. The updated values are aggregated by computing a weighted average. In this study, it is demonstrated that the assimilation scheme works effectively within the ISBA-A-gs model over a four-year period (2008–2011). The EKF is able to extract useful information from the data signal at the grid scale and distribute the root-zone soil moisture and LAI increments throughout the mosaic structure of the model. The impact of the assimilation on the vegetation phenology and on the water and carbon fluxes varies from one season to another. The spring drought of 2011 is an interesting case study of the potential of the assimilation to improve drought monitoring. A comparison between simulated and in situ soil moisture gathered at the twelve SMOSMANIA (Soil Moisture Observing System–Meteorological Automatic Network Integrated Application) stations shows improved anomaly correlations for eight stations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 9057-9103 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. L. Barbu ◽  
J.-C. Calvet ◽  
J.-F. Mahfouf ◽  
S. Lafont

Abstract. The land monitoring service of the European Copernicus programme has developed a set of satellite-based biogeophysical products, including surface soil moisture (SSM) and leaf area index (LAI). This study investigates the impact of joint assimilation of remotely sensed SSM derived from ASCAT backscatter data and the GEOV1 satellite-based LAI into the ISBA-A-gs land surface model within the SURFEX modelling platform of Meteo-France. The ASCAT data were bias corrected with respect to the model climatology by using a seasonal-based CDF (Cumulative Distribution Function) matching technique. A multivariate multi-scale land data assimilation system (LDAS) based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is used for monitoring the soil moisture, terrestrial vegetation, surface carbon and energy fluxes across the France domain at a spatial resolution of 8 km. Each model grid box is divided in a number of land covers, each having its own set of prognostic variables. The filter algorithm is designed to provide a distinct analysis for each land cover while using one observation per grid box. The updated values are aggregated by computing a weighted average. In this study, it is demonstrated that the assimilation scheme works effectively within the ISBA-A-gs model over a four-year period (2008–2011). The EKF is able to extract useful information from the data signal at the grid scale and to distribute the root-zone soil moisture and LAI increments among the mosaic structure of the model. The impact of the assimilation on the vegetation phenology and on the water and carbon fluxes varies from one season to another. The spring drought of 2011 is an interesting case study showing the potential of the assimilation to improve drought monitoring. A comparison between simulated and in situ soil moisture gathered at the twelve SMOSMANIA stations shows improved anomaly correlations for eight stations.


Author(s):  
Nemesio Rodriguez-Fernandez ◽  
Patricia de Rosnay ◽  
Clement Albergel ◽  
Philippe Richaume ◽  
Filipe Aires ◽  
...  

The assimilation of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) data into the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts) H-TESSEL (Hydrology revised - Tiled ECMWF Scheme for Surface Exchanges over Land) model is presented. SMOS soil moisture (SM) estimates have been produced specifically by training a neural network with SMOS brightness temperatures as input and H-TESSEL model SM simulations as reference. This can help the assimilation of SMOS information in several ways: (1) the neural network soil moisture (NNSM) data have a similar climatology to the model, (2) no global bias is present with respect to the model even if regional differences can exist. Experiments performing joint data assimilation (DA) of NNSM, 2 metre air temperature and relative humidity or NNSM-only DA are discussed. The resulting SM was evaluated against a large number of in situ measurements of SM obtaining similar results to those of the model with no assimilation, even if significant differences were found from site to site. In addition, atmospheric forecasts initialized with H-TESSEL runs (without DA) or with the analysed SM were compared to measure of the impact of the satellite information. Although, NNSM DA has an overall neutral impact in the forecast in the Tropics, a significant positive impact was found in other areas and periods, especially in regions with limited in situ information. The joint NNSM, T2m and RH2m DA improves the forecast for all the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere. The impact is mostly due to T2m and RH2m, but SMOS NN DA alone also improves the forecast in July- September. In the Northern Hemisphere, the joint NNSM, T2m and RH2m DA improves the forecast in April-September, while NNSM alone has a significant positive effect in July-September. Furthermore, forecasting skill maps show that SMOS NNSM improves the forecast in North America and in Northern Asia for up to 72 hours lead time.


2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wade T. Crow ◽  
Emiel Van Loon

Abstract Data assimilation approaches require some type of state forecast error covariance information in order to optimally merge model predictions with observations. The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) dynamically derives such information through a Monte Carlo approach and the introduction of random noise in model states, fluxes, and/or forcing data. However, in land data assimilation, relatively little guidance exists concerning strategies for selecting the appropriate magnitude and/or type of introduced model noise. In addition, little is known about the sensitivity of filter prediction accuracy to (potentially) inappropriate assumptions concerning the source and magnitude of modeling error. Using a series of synthetic identical twin experiments, this analysis explores the consequences of making incorrect assumptions concerning the source and magnitude of model error on the efficiency of assimilating surface soil moisture observations to constrain deeper root-zone soil moisture predictions made by a land surface model. Results suggest that inappropriate model error assumptions can lead to circumstances in which the assimilation of surface soil moisture observations actually degrades the performance of a land surface model (relative to open-loop assimilations that lack a data assimilation component). Prospects for diagnosing such circumstances and adaptively correcting the culpable model error assumptions using filter innovations are discussed. The dual assimilation of both runoff (from streamflow) and surface soil moisture observations appears to offer a more robust assimilation framework where incorrect model error assumptions are more readily diagnosed via filter innovations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1548-1560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Ellis ◽  
Christopher M. Taylor ◽  
Graham P. Weedon ◽  
Nicola Gedney ◽  
Douglas B. Clark ◽  
...  

Abstract A critical function of a land surface scheme, used in climate and weather prediction models, is to partition the energy from insolation into sensible and latent heat fluxes. Many use a soil moisture function to control the surface moisture fluxes through the transpiration. The validity and global distribution of the parameters used to calculate this soil moisture stress function are difficult to assess. This work presents a method to map soil moisture stress globally from an earth observation vegetation index and precipitation data, and it compares the resulting distributions with output from the Joint U.K. Land Environment Simulator (JULES) land surface scheme. A number of model runs with different soil and vegetation parameters are compared. These examine the sensitivity of the seasonality of soil moisture stress, within the model, to the parameterization of soil hydraulic properties and the seasonality of leaf area index in the vegetation. It is found that the seasonality of soil moisture within the model is more sensitive to the soil hydraulic properties than the leaf area index. The partitioning of throughfall into evaporation and runoff, in the model, is the dominant factor in determining the timing of soil moisture stress.


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