“…First, the GRACE observations themselves, though coarse, yield reasonably reliable estimates of TWS anomalies . Assimilating these data into an LSM, therefore, has the potential to improve the accuracy of TWS in LSM simulations, much as assimilation of remotely sensed snow cover Rodell and Houser, 2004), snow water equivalent , soil moisture (Margulis et al, 2002;Crow and Wood, 2003;Reichle and Koster, 2005), and skin temperature (Bosilovich et al, 2007) have had a positive impact on LSM simulations. Second, our understanding of hydrological processes, as captured by the model, are used to enhance the satellite observations, providing downscaling and quality control of GRACE observations while enabling synthesis of data from multiple observing systems in a physically consistent manner.…”