Validation of land surface models using satellite‐derived surface temperature

Abstract

Abstract. This research examines the feasibility of using remotely sensed surface temperature for validation and updating of land surface hydrologic models. Surface temperature simulated by the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model is compared over the Arkansas-Red River basin with surface temperature retrievals from TOVS and GOES. The results show that modeled and satellite-derived surface temperatures agree well when aggregated in space or time. In particular, monthly mean temperatures agree on the pixel scale, and basin mean temperatures agree instantaneously. At the pixel scale, however, surface temperatures from both satellites were found to have higher spatial and temporal variabilities than the modeled temperatures, although the model and satellites display similar patterns of variability through space and time. The largest differences between modeled and remotely sensed surface temperature variability occur at times of maximum net radiation both diurnally and seasonally, i.e., afternoon and summer. Comparison of temporal and spatial patterns of VIC-predicted surface temperature variability with similar predictions by nine other models involved in the PILPS-2c experiment show that the VIC patterns are similar to those of the other models. Observed surface temperature and air temperature from FII•'E are used to identify possible errors in satellite-retrieved surface temperatures. The lql•E comparisons show that satellite retrieved surface temperatures likely contain errors that increase variability.

The impacts of climate change and land cover/use transition on the hydrology in the upper Yellow River Basin, China

“…VIC is a physically-based macroscale hydrological model developed to solve water and energy balances. It has been applied in many parts of the world in a range of climate conditions and resolutions (Abdulla and Lettenmaier, 1997;Lohmann et al, 1998b;Matheussen et al, 2000;Durre et al, 2000;Nijssen et al, 2001;Rhoads et al, 2001;Christensen et al, 2004;Haddeland et al, 2006;Adam et al, 2007). VIC has been demonstrated to perform especially well in simulating streamflow in humid environments (Abdulla and Lettenmaier, 1997).…”

Uncertainty reduction and parameter estimation of a distributed hydrological model with ground and remote-sensing data

“…However, the ability to calibrate a model using satellite data, even in combination with traditional in situ data, is still a challenging topic. Scientific work in this field goes in many directions: Rhoads et al (2001) used satellite-derived LST to validate a land-surface model, Caparrini et al (2004) and Sini et al (2008) assimilated remotely sensed measurements into a land-surface model to estimate the surface turbulent fluxes, Brocca et al (2011a) analyzed different remotely sensed soil humidity estimations with the perspective of using them in hydrological modeling, White and Lewis (2011) used satellite imagery to monitor the dynamics of wetlands of the Australian Great Artesian basin and Khan et al (2011) have recently proposed a procedure to calibrate a fully distributed hydrological model using satellite-derived flood maps.…”

Multiobjective calibration of land surface model evapotranspiration predictions using streamflow observations and spaceborne surface radiometric temperature retrievals

“…Its close conceptual link to terms of the surface energy balance and widespread availability suggests that spaceborne surface radiometric temperature ( T s ) retrievals in particular have some calibrational value for evapotranspiration predictions. Recent work has examined the value of remote T s retrievals as a source of validation data for land surface models [ Jin et al , 1997; Rhoads et al , 2001] and demonstrated the utility of T s observations within the context of land surface data assimilation systems [ Lakshmi , 2000; Boni et al , 2001]. The goal of this paper is to clarify the potential for improving large‐scale (>50 2 ‐km 2 ) model predictions of evapotranspiration through calibration of a land surface model using remote surface radiometric temperature retrievals.…”