scholarly journals Using Satellite-Derived Vegetation Products to Evaluate LDAS-Monde over the Euro-Mediterranean Area

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delphine Leroux ◽  
Jean-Christophe Calvet ◽  
Simon Munier ◽  
Clément Albergel

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.

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (11) ◽  
pp. 8941-8965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujay V. Kumar ◽  
Shugong Wang ◽  
David M. Mocko ◽  
Christa D. Peters-Lidard ◽  
Youlong Xia

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 1214-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Fan ◽  
H. M. Van den Dool ◽  
D. Lohmann ◽  
K. Mitchell

Abstract Land surface variables, such as soil moisture, are among the most important components of memory for the climate system. A more accurate and long time series of land surface data is very important for real-time drought monitoring, for understanding land surface–atmosphere interaction, and for improving weather and climate prediction. Thus, the ultimate goal of the present work is to produce a long-term “land reanalysis” with 1) retrospective and 2) real-time update components that are both generated in a manner that remains temporally homogeneous throughout the record. As the first step of the above goal, the retrospective component is reported here. Specifically, a 51-yr (1948–98) set of hourly land surface meteorological forcing is produced and used to execute the Noah land surface model, all on the 1/8° grid of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS). The surface forcing includes air temperature, air humidity, surface pressure, wind speed, and surface downward shortwave and longwave radiation, all derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center For Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) Global Reanalysis. Additionally, a newly improved precipitation analysis is used to provide realistic hourly precipitation forcing on the NLDAS grid. Some unique procedures are described and applied to yield retroactive forcing that is temporally homogeneous over the 51 yr at the spatial and temporal resolution, including a terrain height adjustment that accounts for the terrain differences between the global reanalysis and the NLDAS. The land model parameters and fixed fields are derived from existing high-resolution datasets of vegetation, soil, and orography. The land reanalysis output from the Noah land surface model consists of eight energy balance components and skin temperature, which are output at 3-hourly intervals, and 15 other variables (i.e., water balance components, surface state variables, etc.), which are output at daily intervals for the period of 1 January 1948 through 31 December 1998. Using soil moisture observations throughout Illinois over 1984–98 as validation, an improvement in the simulated soil moisture (of the Noah model versus a forerunner leaky bucket model) is illustrated in terms of an improved annual cycle (much better phasing) and somewhat higher anomaly correlation for the anomalies, especially in central and southern Illinois. Nonetheless, considerable room for model improvement remains. For example, the simulated anomalies are overly uniform in the vertical compared to the observations, and some likely routes for model improvement in this aspect are proposed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Gao ◽  
Paul A. Dirmeyer ◽  
Zhichang Guo ◽  
Mei Zhao

Abstract A coupled land–atmosphere climate model is used to investigate the impact of vegetation parameters (leaf area index, absorbed radiation, and greenness fraction) on the simulation of surface fluxes and their potential role in improving climate forecasts. Ensemble simulations for 1986–95 have been conducted with specified observed sea surface temperatures. The vegetation impact is analyzed by comparing integrations with two different ways of specifying vegetation boundary conditions: observed interannually varying vegetation versus the climatological annual cycle. Parallel integrations are also implemented and analyzed for the land surface model in an uncoupled mode within the framework of the Second Global Soil Wetness Project (GSWP-2) for the same period. The sensitivity to vegetation anomalies in the coupled simulations appears to be relatively small. There appears to be only episodic and localized favorable impacts of vegetation variations on the skill of precipitation and temperature simulations. Impacts are sometimes manifested strictly through changes in land surface fluxes, and in other cases involve clear interactions with atmospheric processes. In general, interannual variations of vegetation tend to increase the temporal variability of radiation fluxes, soil evaporation, and canopy interception loss in terms of both spatial frequency and global mean. Over cohesive regions of significant and persistent vegetation anomalies, cumulative statistics do show a net response of surface fluxes, temperature, and precipitation with vegetation anomalies of ±20% corresponding to a precipitation response of about ±6%. However, in about half of these cases no significant response was found. The results presented here suggest that vegetation may be a useful element of the land surface for enhancing seasonal predictability, but its role in this model appears to be relatively minor. Improvement does not occur in all circumstances, and strong anomalies have the best chance of a positive impact on the simulation.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiliano Gelati ◽  
Bertrand Decharme ◽  
Jean-Christophe Calvet ◽  
Marie Minvielle ◽  
Jan Polcher ◽  
...  

Abstract. The understanding of land surface hydrology is critical for planning human activities involving freshwater resources. We assess how atmospheric forcing data uncertainties affect land surface model (LSM) simulations by means of an extensive evaluation exercise using a number of state-of-the-art remote sensing and station-based datasets. For this purpose, we use the CO2-responsive ISBA-A-gs LSM coupled the CNRM version of the Total Runoff Integrated Pathways (CTRIP) river routing model. We perform multi-forcing simulations over the Euro-Mediterranean area (25°–75.5° N, 11.5° W–62.5° E, at 0.5° resolution) from 1979 to 2012. The model is forced using four atmospheric datasets. Three of them are based on the ERA-Interim reanalysis (ERA-I). The fourth dataset is independent from ERA-Interim: PGF, developed at Princeton University. The hydrological impacts of atmospheric forcing uncertainties are assessed by comparing simulated surface soil moisture (SSM), leaf area index (LAI) and river discharge against observation-based datasets: SSM from the European Space Agency's Water Cycle Multi-mission Observation Strategy and Climate Change Initiative projects (ESA-CCI); LAI of the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS); and Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) river discharge. The atmospheric forcing data are also compared to reference datasets. Precipitation is the most uncertain forcing variable across datasets, while the most consistent are air temperature, and SW and LW radiation. At the monthly time scale, SSM and LAI simulations are relatively insensitive to forcing uncertainties. Some discrepancies with ESA-CCI appear to be forcing-independent and may be due to different assumptions underlying the LSM and the remote sensing retrieval algorithm. All simulations overestimate average summer and early autumn LAI. Forcing uncertainty impacts on simulated river discharge are larger on mean values and standard deviations than on correlations with GRDC data. Anomaly correlation coefficients are not inferior to those computed from raw monthly discharge time series, indicating that the model reproduces inter-annual variability fairly well. However, simulated river discharge time series generally feature larger variability compared to measurements. They also tend to overestimate winter-spring high flows and underestimate summer–autumn low flows. Considering that several differences emerge between simulations and reference data, which may not be completely explained by forcing uncertainty, we suggest several research directions. These range from further investigating the discrepancies between LSMs and remote sensing retrievals to developing new model components to represent physical and anthropogenic processes.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Simon Munier ◽  
Delphine Jennifer Leroux ◽  
Hélène Dewaele ◽  
David Fairbairn ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this study, a global Land Data Assimilation system (LDAS-Monde) is tested over Europe and the Mediterranean basin to increase monitoring accuracy for land surface variables. LDAS-Monde is able to ingest information from satellite-derived surface Soil Moisture (SM) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) observations 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 (ISBA-CTRIP) continental hydrological system. It makes use of the CO2-responsive version of ISBA which models leaf-scale physiological processes and plant growth. Transfer of water and heat in the soil rely on a multilayer diffusion scheme. Surface SM and LAI observations are assimilated using a simplified extended Kalman filter (SEKF), which uses finite differences from perturbed simulations to generate flow-dependence between the observations and the model control variables. The latter include LAI and seven layers of soil (from 1 cm to 100 cm depth). A sensitivity test of the Jacobians over 2000–2012 exhibits effects related to both depth and season. It also suggests that observations of both LAI and surface SM have an impact on the different control variables. From the assimilation of surface SM, the LDAS is more effective in modifying soil-moisture from the top layers of soil as model sensitivity to surface SM decreases with depth and has almost no impact from 60 cm downwards. From the assimilation of LAI, a strong impact on LAI itself is found. The LAI assimilation impact is more pronounced in SM layers that contain the highest fraction of roots (from 10 cm to 60 cm). The assimilation is more efficient in summer and autumn than in winter and spring. Assimilation impact shows that the LDAS works well constraining the model to the observations and that stronger corrections are applied to LAI than to SM. The assimilation impact's evaluation is successfully carried out using (i) agricultural statistics over France, (ii) river discharge observations, (iii) satellite-derived estimates of land evapotranspiration from the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) project and (iv) spatially gridded observations based estimates of up-scaled gross primary production and evapotranspiration from the FLUXNET network. Comparisons with those four datasets highlight neutral to highly positive improvement.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibo Zhang ◽  
Jean-Christophe Calvet ◽  
José Darrozes ◽  
Nicolas Roussel ◽  
Frédéric Frappart ◽  
...  

Abstract. This work aims to assess the estimation of surface volumetric soil moisture (VSM) using the Global Navigation Satellite System Interferometric Reflectometry (GNSS-IR) technique. Year-round observations were acquired from a grassland site in southwestern France using an antenna consecutively placed at two contrasting heights above the ground surface (3.3 or 29.4 m). The VSM retrievals are compared with two independent reference datasets: in situ observations of soil moisture, and numerical simulations of soil moisture and vegetation biomass from the ISBA (Interactions between Soil, Biosphere and Atmosphere) land surface model. Scaled VSM estimates can be retrieved throughout the year removing vegetation effects by the separation of growth and senescence periods and by the filtering of the GNSS-IR observations that are most affected by vegetation. Antenna height has no significant impact on the quality of VSM estimates. Comparisons between the VSM GNSS-IR retrievals and the in situ VSM observations at a depth of 5 cm show a good agreement (R2 = 0.86 and RMSE = 0.04 m3 m−3). It is shown that the signal is sensitive to the grass litter water content and that this effect triggers differences between VSM retrievals and in situ VSM observations at depths of 1 cm and 5 cm, especially during light rainfall events.


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.


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