Hydrological consistency using multi-sensor remote sensing data for water and energy cycle studies

Abstract A multi-sensor/multi-platform approach to water and energy cycle prediction is demonstrated in an effort to understand the variability and feedback of land surface and atmospheric processes over large space and time scales. Remote sensing-based variables including soil moisture (from AMSR-E), surface heat fluxes (from MODIS) and precipitation rates (from TRMM) are combined with North American Regional Reanalysis derived atmospheric components to examine the degree of hydrological consistency throughout these diverse and independent hydrologic data sets. The study focuses on the influence of the North American Monsoon System (NAMS) over the southwestern United States, and is timed to coincide with the SMEX04 North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME). The study is focused over the Arizona portion of the NAME domain to assist in better characterizing the hydrometeorological processes occurring across Arizona during the summer monsoon period. Results demonstrate that this multi-sensor approach, in combination with available atmospheric observations, can be used to obtain a comprehensive and hydrometeorologically consistent characterization of the land surface water cycle, leading to an improved understanding of water and energy cycles within the NAME region and providing a novel framework for future remote observation and analysis of the coupled land surface–atmosphere system.

[1]  Elfatih A. B. Eltahir,et al.  Atmospheric Controls on Soil Moisture-Boundary Layer Interactions. Part II: Feedbacks within the Continental United States , 2003 .

[2]  F. R. Schiebe,et al.  Large area mapping of soil moisture using the ESTAR passive microwave radiometer , 1995 .

[3]  W. Kustas,et al.  The Soil Moisture–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (SMACEX): Background, Hydrometeorological Conditions, and Preliminary Findings , 2005 .

[4]  A. C. Xavier,et al.  Monitoring leaf area index at watershed level through NDVI from Landsat-7/ETM+ data , 2004 .

[5]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Calibration of a land surface model using multiple data sets , 2005 .

[6]  U. Schneider,et al.  Global precipitation estimates based on a technique for combining satellite-based estimates, rain gauge analysis, and NWP model precipitation information , 1995 .

[7]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Modeling Evapotranspiration during SMACEX: Comparing Two Approaches for Local- and Regional-Scale Prediction , 2005 .

[8]  J. Townshend,et al.  Global land cover classi(cid:142) cation at 1 km spatial resolution using a classi(cid:142) cation tree approach , 2004 .

[9]  D. Lettenmaier,et al.  Role of antecedent land surface conditions on north American monsoon rainfall variability , 2005 .

[10]  K. Mo,et al.  Interannual Variability of the U.S. Summer Precipitation Regime with Emphasis on the Southwestern Monsoon. , 1998 .

[11]  E. Small.  The influence of soil moisture anomalies on variability of the North American Monsoon System , 2001 .

[12]  W. Crow,et al.  The assimilation of remotely sensed soil brightness temperature imagery into a land surface model using Ensemble Kalman filtering: a case study based on ESTAR measurements during SGP97 , 2003 .

[13]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Scale influences on the remote estimation of evapotranspiration using multiple satellite sensors , 2006 .

[14]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Copula-Derived Observation Operators for Assimilating TMI and AMSR-E Retrieved Soil Moisture into Land Surface Models , 2007 .

[15]  Matthias Drusch,et al.  Soil moisture retrieval during the Southern Great Plains Hydrology Experiment 1999: A comparison between experimental remote sensing data and operational products , 2004 .

[16]  K. Beven,et al.  On constraining the predictions of a distributed model: The incorporation of fuzzy estimates of saturated areas into the calibration process , 1998 .

[17]  R. Pinker,et al.  Modeling Surface Solar Irradiance for Satellite Applications on a Global Scale , 1992 .

[18]  Cynthia K. Mueller,et al.  The Utility of Sounding and Mesonet Data to Nowcast Thunderstorm Initiation , 1993 .

[19]  Paolo D'Odorico,et al.  Preferential states in soil moisture and climate dynamics , 2004, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[20]  M. Mccabe,et al.  Using TRMM/TMI to retrieve soil moisture over southern United States from 1998 to 2002: results and validation , 2003 .

[21]  K. Findell.  Atmospheric Controls on Soil Moisture-Boundary Layer Interactions , 2001 .

[22]  A. C. Xavier,et al.  Mapping leaf area index through spectral vegetation indices in a subtropical watershed , 2004 .

[23]  Soroosh Sorooshian,et al.  Toward improved calibration of hydrologic models: Multiple and noncommensurable measures of information , 1998 .

[24]  Z. Su.  The Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) for estimation of turbulent heat fluxes , 2002 .

[25]  H. E. Jobson.  Evaporation Into the Atmosphere: Theory, History, and Applications , 1982 .

[26]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Real‐time and retrospective forcing in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) project , 2003 .

[27]  E. Berbery,et al.  Evolution of the North American Monsoon System , 1998 .

[28]  E. Wood,et al.  Data Assimilation for Estimating the Terrestrial Water Budget Using a Constrained Ensemble Kalman Filter , 2006 .

[29]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Evaluation of Remotely Sensed Evapotranspiration Over the CEOP EOP-1 Reference Sites , 2007 .

[30]  M. Mccabe,et al.  Estimation of regional terrestrial water cycle using multi-sensor remote sensing observations and data assimilation , 2008 .

[31]  S. Sorooshian,et al.  Soil moisture–precipitation feedback on the North American monsoon system in the MM5‐OSU model , 2004 .

[32]  T. Jackson,et al.  Using TRMM/TMI to Retrieve Surface Soil Moisture over the Southern United States from 1998 to 2002 , 2006 .

[33]  Christian D. Kummerow,et al.  An Examination of Version-5 Rainfall Estimates from the TRMM Microwave Imager, Precipitation Radar, and Rain Gauges on Global, Regional, and Storm Scales , 2004 .

[34]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Soil moisture mapping at regional scales using microwave radiometry: the Southern Great Plains Hydrology Experiment , 1999, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[35]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Spatial and temporal patterns of land surface fluxes from remotely sensed surface temperatures within an uncertainty modelling framework , 2005 .

[36]  Martha C. Anderson,et al.  Vegetation water content mapping using Landsat data derived normalized difference water index for corn and soybeans , 2004 .

[37]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Initial soil moisture retrievals from AMSR‐E: Multiscale comparison using in situ data and rainfall patterns over Iowa , 2005 .

[38]  M. Watkins,et al.  GRACE Measurements of Mass Variability in the Earth System , 2004, Science.

[39]  Eric A. Smith,et al.  Surface flux measurements in FIFE: An overview , 1992 .

[40]  Wade T. Crow,et al.  The added value of spaceborne passive microwave soil moisture retrievals for forecasting rainfall‐runoff partitioning , 2005 .

[41]  M. Mccabe,et al.  Evaluation of AMSR-E-Derived Soil Moisture Retrievals Using Ground-Based and PSR Airborne Data during SMEX02 , 2005 .

[42]  Randal D. Koster,et al.  Soil Moisture Memory in Climate Models , 2001 .

[43]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  The multi‐institution North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS): Utilizing multiple GCIP products and partners in a continental distributed hydrological modeling system , 2004 .

[44]  A. Comrie,et al.  The North American Monsoon , 1997 .

[45]  Andrew W. Western,et al.  The Tarrawarra project: high resolution spatial measurement, modelling and analysis of soil moisture and hydrological response , 1999 .

[46]  T. Jackson,et al.  Soil moisture estimates from TRMM Microwave Imager observations over the Southern United States , 2003 .

[47]  Wade T. Crow,et al.  Relevance of time‐varying and time‐invariant retrieval error sources on the utility of spaceborne soil moisture products , 2005 .

[48]  Q. Hu,et al.  Interannual Rainfall Variations in the North American Summer Monsoon Region: 1900-98* , 2002 .

[49]  John S. Kimball,et al.  Satellite radar remote sensing of seasonal growing seasons for boreal and subalpine evergreen forests. , 2004 .

[50]  Wilfried Brutsaert,et al.  Aspects of bulk atmospheric boundary layer similarity under free‐convective conditions , 1999 .

[51]  Paul R. Houser,et al.  A methodology for initializing soil moisture in a global climate model: Assimilation of near‐surface soil moisture observations , 2001 .

[52]  Z. Su.  The Surface Energy Balance System ( SEBS ) for estimation of turbulent heat fluxes , 2002 .

[53]  Wilfried Brutsaert,et al.  Evaporation into the atmosphere : theory, history, and applications , 1982 .

[54]  J. Monteith.  Evaporation and surface temperature , 2007 .

[55]  C. Birkett,et al.  Contribution of the TOPEX NASA Radar Altimeter to the global monitoring of large rivers and wetlands , 1998 .

[56]  Wade T. Crow,et al.  Using a Microwave Emission Model to Estimate Soil Moisture from ESTAR Observations during SGP99 , 2004 .