Water and heat regimes modelling for a vast territory using remote-sensing data

Abstract

Methods have been developed to assess water and heat regime characteristics of a vast agricultural region for vegetation season based on the model of land-surface–atmosphere interaction. The model is adjusted to assimilate estimates of the land-surface and meteorological characteristics derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (AVHRR/NOAA), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer/Earth Observing System Terra & Aqua (MODIS/EOS Terra and Aqua), and Scanning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager/Meteosat-9 (SEVIRI/Meteosat-9) data. The case study has been carried out for the agricultural Central Black Earth region of European Russia of 227,300 km² for the 2009–2012 vegetation seasons. The methods of satellite data processing have been developed or refined, which provide the retrieval of vegetation characteristics, land-surface temperature, and precipitation. The techniques for the assimilation of satellite-based products in the model have been developed. Some major water regime characteristics have been generated such as soil water content, evapotranspiration, and others.

Acknowledgement

We thank V. Solovjev and A. Kukharsky from the State Research Centre of Space Hydrometeorology ‘Planeta’ for their participation in the development of satellite data processing methods.