HR: 10:30h
AN: H32B-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Evapotranspiration Estimates using the Land Information System
AU: * Houser, P R
EM: Paul.Houser@nasa.gov
AF: NASA, Code 614.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Peters-Lidard, C D
EM: Christa.Peters-Lidard@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA, Code 614.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Rodell, M
EM: Matthew.Rodell-1@nasa.gov
AF: NASA, Code 614.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: The Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) is being used extensively by the research community for studies ranging from climate and weather forecast initialization to the improvement of hydrologic decision support systems. The goal of the GLDAS is to ingest satellite- and ground-based observational data products, using advanced land surface modeling and data assimilation techniques, in order to generate optimal fields of land surface states and fluxes (Rodell et al., 2004). The GLDAS software, which has been streamlined and parallelized by the Land Information System (LIS) software infrastructure, drives multiple, offline (not coupled to the atmosphere) land surface models, integrates a huge quantity of observation based data, executes on a global domain at high spatial resolutions (2.5° to 1 km), and is capable of producing results in near-real time. A vegetation-based "tiling" approach is used to simulate sub-grid scale variability, with a 1 km global vegetation dataset as its basis. Soil and elevation parameters are based on high-resolution global datasets. Observation-based precipitation and downward radiation products, as well as output fields from the best available global coupled atmospheric data assimilation systems, are employed to force the models. The international research community is using GLDAS to help assess global land surface conditions as part of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP), and GLDAS has been identified as NASA's land surface contribution to the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) enabling better use of remote sensing data in operational weather and climate forecasting. The global 1km resolution capability of LIS allows it to take advantage of the latest satellite observations, such as MODIS leaf area index and surface temperature, at their full resolution. In this presentation we will critically evaluate global LIS-based evapotranspiration estimates at various time and space scales, and demonstrate its usefulness in various applications.
UR: http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov
DE: 1818 Evapotranspiration
DE: 1878 Water/energy interactions
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly