Peter J. Marinescu1, Kyle Hilburn1,
Daniel Abdi2, Isidora Jankov3
1 Cooperative Institute for Research in the
Atmosphere, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.
2 Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental
Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
3 Global Systems Laboratory, NOAA/OAR, Boulder,
Colorado.
Corresponding author: Peter J. Marinescu
(peter.marinescu@colostate.edu)
Key Points:
- NOAA modeled soil moisture is drier in wet regions and wetter in dry
regions as compared to in situ observations.
- NOAA modeled soil moisture has lower variance than in situ
observations.
- The differences between NOAA modeled soil moisture and in situ data
are larger at deeper soil depths as compared to near the surface.
Abstract
Three estimates of soil moisture from National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) programs are compared. The estimates are from a
high-resolution atmospheric model with a land surface model, a
hydrologic model and in situ observations. Both models demonstrate
wetter soil moisture in dry regions and drier soil moistures in wet
regions, as compared to the in situ observations. These soil moisture
differences occur at most soil depths but are larger at the deeper
depths below the surface (100 cm). In terms of soil moisture variance,
both models generally have lower standard deviations as compared to the
in situ observations, except for near the surface where the in situ and
high-resolution, land surface model compare well. These NOAA soil
moisture estimates are used for a variety of forecasting and societal
applications, and understanding their differences provides important
context for their applications and can lead to model improvements.