Soil Moisture Model Calibration and Validation: An ARS Watershed on the South Fork Iowa River

AbstractSoil moisture monitoring with in situ technology is a time-consuming and costly endeavor for which a method of increasing the resolution of spatial estimates across in situ networks is necessary. Using a simple hydrologic model, the estimation capacity of an in situ watershed network can be increased beyond the station distribution by using available precipitation, soil, and topographic information. A study site was selected on the Iowa River, characterized by homogeneous soil and topographic features, reducing the variables to precipitation only. Using 10-km precipitation estimates from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) for 2013, high-resolution estimates of surface soil moisture were generated in coordination with an in situ network, which was deployed as part of the Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS). A simple, bucket model for soil moisture at each in situ sensor was calibrated using four precipitation products and subsequently validated at both the sensor for which it was cal...

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