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Simultaneous estimation of surface soil moisture and soil properties with a dual ensemble Kalman smoother

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Abstract

In this paper, a new state-parameter estimation approach is presented based on the dual ensemble Kalman smoother (DEnKS) and simple biosphere model (SiB2) to sequentially estimate both the soil properties and soil moisture profile by assimilating surface soil moisture observations. The Arou observation station, located in the upper reaches of the Heihe River in northwestern China, was selected to test the proposed method. Three numeric experiments were designed and performed to analyze the influence of uncertainties in model parameters, atmospheric forcing, and the model’s physical mechanics on soil moisture estimates. Several assimilation schemes based on the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), ensemble Kalman smoother (EnKS), and dual EnKF (DEnKF) were also compared in this study. The results demonstrate that soil moisture and soil properties can be simultaneously estimated by state-parameter estimation methods, which can provide more accurate estimation of soil moisture than traditional filter methods such as EnKF and EnKS. The estimation accuracy of the model parameters decreased with increasing error sources. DEnKS outperformed DEnKF in estimating soil moisture in most cases, especially where few observations were available. This study demonstrates that the DEnKS approach is a useful and practical way to improve soil moisture estimation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Nan Chu & PeiJun Du

  2. Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Nan Chu, ChunLin Huang & Xin Li

  3. Heihe Remote Sensing Experimental Research Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    ChunLin Huang

  4. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xin Li

Authors
  1. Nan Chu
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  2. ChunLin Huang
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  3. Xin Li
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  4. PeiJun Du
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Correspondence to ChunLin Huang.

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Chu, N., Huang, C., Li, X. et al. Simultaneous estimation of surface soil moisture and soil properties with a dual ensemble Kalman smoother. Sci. China Earth Sci. 58, 2327–2339 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-015-5175-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-015-5175-6

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