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Soil moisture analysis combining screen‐level parameters and microwave brightness temperature: A test with field data
Author(s) -
Seuffert G.,
Wilker H.,
Viterbo P.,
Mahfouf J.F.,
Drusch M.,
Calvet J.C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2003gl017128
Subject(s) - water content , data assimilation , environmental science , brightness temperature , moisture , numerical weather prediction , relative humidity , sensible heat , humidity , microwave , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geology , physics , geotechnical engineering , quantum mechanics
To improve the soil moisture initial conditions for numerical weather prediction models the potential of assimilating both screen‐level parameters (2m‐temperature T 2 m , 2m‐relative humidity RH 2 m ) and 1.4 GHz T B is investigated. A soil moisture analysis system based on the Extended Kalman Filter theory is applied to the single column version of the ECMWF numerical weather prediction model for 130 summer days during the MUREX field experiment. A comparison with independent observations shows that the prediction of sensible heat flux, root zone and especially near‐surface soil moisture benefits from the assimilation of all three observation types ( T 2 m , RH 2 m , T B ).