Open AccessAn updated treatment of soil texture and associated hydraulic properties in a global land modeling system
Author(s) -
De Lannoy Gabriëlle J. M.,
Koster Randal D.,
Reichle Rolf H.,
Mahanama Sarith P. P.,
Liu Qing
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of advances in modeling earth systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.03
H-Index - 58
ISSN - 1942-2466
DOI - 10.1002/2014ms000330
Subject(s) - pedotransfer function , soil texture , water content , data assimilation , environmental science , soil science , texture (cosmology) , hydrology (agriculture) , soil water , remote sensing , computer science , meteorology , geology , hydraulic conductivity , geotechnical engineering , geography , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics)
The advent of new data sets describing soil texture and associated soil properties offers the promise of improved hydrological simulation. Here we describe the composition of a new soil texture data set and its implementation into a specific land surface modeling system, namely, the Catchment land surface model (LSM) of the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System version 5 (GEOS‐5) modeling and assimilation framework. First, global soil texture composites are generated using data from the Harmonized World Soil Database version 1.21 (HWSD1.21) and the State Soil Geographic (STATSGO2) project, with explicit consideration of different levels of organic material. Then, the LSM's soil parameters are upgraded using the new texture data, with hydraulic parameters derived for the more extensive set of texture classes using pedotransfer functions. Other changes to the LSM parameters are included to further support simulations at increasingly fine resolutions. A suite of simulations with the original and new parameter versions shows modest yet significant improvements in the Catchment LSM's simulation of soil moisture and surface hydrological fluxes. The revised LSM parameters will be used for the forthcoming Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) soil moisture assimilation product.