Analysis of soil moisture from near-surface parameters: a feasibility study

Abstract

Demonstrates that it is possible to estimate soil moisture from the evolution of atmospheric parameters near the surface (temperature and relative humidity) if a realistic surface transfer model is available. Two methods to initialize soil moisture in meteorological models are then proposed: a variational method where the optimal soil moisture minimizes a penalty function and a sequential method consisting of a set of predictions and static corrections of soil moisture. The algorithms are examined with a one-dimensional model including a detailed land-surface parameterization. A feasibility study is undertaken using the HAPEX-MOBILHY dataset where soil moisture has been measured together with atmospheric parameters. It is demonstrated that for three 48-h clear-sky periods the two methods are able to converge rapidly toward a realistic soil moisture content starting from arbitrary values. -Author