Jc. Calvet et al., RETRIEVING THE ROOT-ZONE SOIL-MOISTURE FROM SURFACE SOIL-MOISTURE OR TEMPERATURE ESTIMATES - A FEASIBILITY STUDY BASED ON FIELD-MEASUREMENTS, Journal of applied meteorology, 37(4), 1998, pp. 371-386
The bulk soil water content must be estimated accurately for short-and
medium-term meteorological modeling. A method is proposed to retrieve
the total soil moisture content as well as the field capacity from ob
served surface parameters such as surface soil moisture or surface tem
perature. A continuous series of micrometeorological and soil water co
ntent measurements was obtained in southwestern France over a fallow s
ite in 1995. In addition, the database includes measurements of the su
rface temperature and soil moisture profiles within the top 5-cm soil
layer. The surface soil moisture measurements are available twice a da
y during two 30-day intensive observing periods in spring and autumn 1
995. Once calibrated, the ISBA (Interactions between Soil, Biosphere,
and Atmosphere) surface scheme is able to properly simulate the measur
ed surface variables and the bulk soil moisture. Then an assimilation
technique is applied to analyze the field capacity and the total soil
water content from the surface data. In particular, it is shown that k
nowing the atmospheric forcing and the precipitation, four or five est
imations of the surface soil moisture spread our over a 15-day period
are enough to retrieve the total soil water content by inverting ISBA.
The use of the surface temperature seems more problematic because its
sensitivity to the value of the total water content is meaningful in
relatively dry conditions only.