Evaluation of the Optimum Interpolation and Nudging Techniques for Soil Moisture Analysis Using FIFE Data

Abstract Initialization of land surface prognostic variables is a crucial issue for short- and medium-range forecasting as well as at seasonal timescales. In this study, two sequential soil moisture analysis schemes are tested, both based on the comparison between observed and predicted 2-m parameters: the nudging technique used operationally at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the optimum interpolation technique proposed by J. F. Mahfouf and used operationally at Meteo-France. Both techniques compute the soil moisture increments as a linear function of analysis increments of 2-m parameters (specific humidity at ECMWF, temperature and relative humidity at Meteo-France). Following the preliminary study by Y. Hu et al., the optimum interpolation technique has been adapted to the four soil-level ECMWF land surface scheme. Both methods are tested in the ECMWF single column model, which has been run for 4 months in 1987 at a grid point close to the location of the First Intern...

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