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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #253295
Title: Application of Data Assimilation with the Root Zone Water Quality Model for Soil Moisture Profile Estimation

Author
item HAN, EUNJIN - Purdue University
item Heathman, Gary
item MERWADE, VENKATESH - Purdue University

Submitted to: American Society of Civil Engineers
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/10/2010
Publication Date: 8/27/2010
Citation: Han, E., Heathman, G.C., Merwade, V. 2010. Application of Data Assimilation with the Root Zone Water Quality Model for Soil Moisture Profile Estimation [abstract]. American Society of Civil Engineers Watershed 2010 Managment Conference: Innovations in Watershed Management Under Land Use and Climate Change, August 23-27, 2010, Madison, Wisconsin. CD ROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF), a popular data assimilation technique for non-linear systems was applied to the Root Zone Water Quality Model. Measured soil moisture data at four different depths (5cm, 20cm, 40cm and 60cm) from two agricultural fields (AS1 and AS2) in northeastern Indiana were used for assimilation and validation purposes. Through daily update, EnKF improved all statistical results (correlation coefficient and Root Mean Square Error and Mean Bias Error) compared to the direct insertion method and model results without assimilation for 5cm and 20cm depth. Soil moisture estimates for deeper layers (40cm and 60cm) did not show significant improvement from assimilating surface soil moisture depending on the initial soil moisture simulation results. It is also demonstrated that update intervals longer than three or four days do not contribute to improve the statistical results. In addition, various ensemble sizes make little difference in the results for the upper layers.