Publication

Abstract : A suite of recent remote-sensing missions provides promising opportunities for improving our understanding of the processes governing the carbon and the water cycle. The study involves inter-comparison of different but complementary satellite observations that are being integrated into the Lund-Potsdam-Jena (LPJ-wsl) dynamic global vegetation model. In this presentation, we will show the results from comparison of different soil moisture products, specifically the Level-3 and Level-4 product from NASA's Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) mission and the soil moisture product from the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI v04.2). The ESA CCI soil moisture product is a merged product of all existing active and passive Level-2 satellite soil moisture datasets. Preliminary results show significant spatial and temporal differences between soil moisture from the two products in the southeastern US, La Plata basin and Northern high latitudes. Differences in the Northern high latitudes are prominent during ice/snow thaw period, which indicates potential for the exploration of freeze/thaw mechanism based on differences in sensors. Finally, we will highlight our ongoing work to assimilate these soil moisture products into the LPJ-wsl model to better parameterize the feedback mechanism in water, carbon, and energy exchange between land surface and atmosphere. We will be specifically focusing on drought effected regions to explore the impact of soil moisture on the modeled vegetation response, assess the spatiotemporal scales at which vegetation responds and the difference in the response based on the soil moisture product used to drive the model.