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A comprehensive evaluation of soil moisture and soil temperature from third‐generation atmospheric and land reanalysis data sets
Author(s) -
Li Mingxing,
Wu Peili,
Ma Zhuguo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/joc.6549
Subject(s) - environmental science , water content , climatology , northern hemisphere , latitude , climate change , range (aeronautics) , atmospheric sciences , geography , geology , oceanography , materials science , geotechnical engineering , geodesy , composite material
Soil moisture and soil temperature, reflecting a synthetic climate regime, are vitally important for climate change assessments and adaption. As historical in situ measurements of soil states are extremely scarce and spatially uneven, reanalysis products play an increasingly important role in filling these gaps. The focus of this paper is on water–heat covariations in reanalysis products and a joint evaluation of soil moisture and soil temperature in five widely used atmospheric and land reanalyses is presented using in situ observations from 25 networks during various periods from 1979 to 2017. At the network scale, the five reanalyses show statistically significant correlations with observations, and the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts ERA5 shows higher skills than the other four products and a significant improvement over its predecessor. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System Reanalysis performs better in terms of long‐term trends. The most skilful signals in the five reanalyses are the seasonal cycles, with correlation coefficients of over 0.9. However, long‐term trends are substantially weaker than the observed trends and still tend to perform poorly over the high latitudes during cold seasons. Soil temperature reanalyses show even better skills, with mean correlation coefficients over 0.9 between anomalies; ERA5 shows enhanced annual ranges toward the high latitudes and altitudes. A joint evaluation of soil temperature and soil moisture showed physically consistent water–heat covariations in the soil in conjunction with atmospheric fluxes during the growing season over the Northern Hemisphere. This report suggests a good future for reanalysis products and their potential role in land surface climate change assessments.