Analysis of spatial distribution and multi-year trend of the remotely sensed soil moisture on the Tibetan Plateau

Long-term highly accurate surface soil moisture data of TP(Tibetan Plateau)are important to the research of Asian monsoon and global atmospheric circulation.However,due to the sparse in-situ networks,the lack of soil moisture observations has seriously hindered the progress of climate change researches of TP.Based on the Dual-Channel soil moisture retrieval algorithm and the satellite observation data of AMSR-E(Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS),we have produced the surface soil moisture data of TP from 2003 to 2010 and analyzed the seasonal characteristic of the soil moisture spatial distribution and its multi-year changing trend in area of TP.Compared to the in-situ observations,the accuracy of the soil moisture retrieved by the proposed algorithm is evaluated.The evaluation result shows that the new soil moisture product has a better accuracy in the TP region than the official product of AMSR-E.The spatial distribution of the annual mean values of soil moisture and the seasonal variations of the monthly-averaged soil moisture are analyzed.The results show that the soil moisture variations in space and time are consistent with the precipitation distribution and the water vapor transmission path in TP.Based on the new soil moisture product,we also analyzed the spatial distribution of the changing trend of multi-year soil moisture in TP.From the comparisons with the precipitation changing trend obtained from the meteorological observation sites in TP,we found that the spatial pattern of the changing trend of soil moisture coincides with the precipitation as a whole.     

A case study of spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture in the Loess Plateau, western China： A geostatistical approach

Soil moisture distribution shows highly variation both spatially and temporally. This study assesses the spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture on a hill-slope scale in the Loess Plateau in West China by using a geostatistical approach. Soil moisture was measured by time-domain reflectometry （TDR） in 313 samples. Two kinds of sampling scales were used （2 × 2 m and 20 ×20 m） at two soil layers （0-30 cm and 30-60 cm）. The general characteristics of soil moisture were analyzed by a classical statistics method, and the spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture was analyzed using a geostatistical approach. The results showed that the spherical model is the best-fit model to simulate soil moisture on the experimental hill-slope. The parameters of this model indicated that the spatial dependence of soil moisture in the selected hill-slope was moderate. Even the 2 × 2 m sampling scale was too coarse to show the detailed spatial variances of soil moisture in this area. The dependent distance increased from 27.4 m to 494.16 m as the sampling scale became coarse （from 2× 2 m to 20 ×20 m）. A map of soil moisture was generated by using original soil moisture data and interpolated values determined by the Kriging method. The average soil moisture （area weighted） in the different layers of soil was calculated on the basis of this map （10.94% for the 0-30 cm soil layer, 11.88% for the 30-60 cm soil layer）. This average soil moisture is lower than the corresponding average effective soil moisture, which suggests that the soil moisture is not sufficient to support vegetation in this area.     

Method development for estimating soil organic carbon content in an alpine region using soil moisture data

The high soil organic carbon(SOC) content in alpine meadow can significantly change soil hydrothermal properties and further affect the soil temperature and moisture as well as the surface water and energy budget. Therefore, this study first introduces a parameterization scheme to describe the effect of SOC content on soil hydraulic and thermal parameters in a land surface model(LSM), and then the SOC content is estimated by minimizing the difference between observed and simulated surface-layer soil moisture. The accuracy of the estimated SOC content was evaluated using in situ observation data at a soil moisture and temperature-measuring network in Naqu, central Tibetan Plateau. Sensitivity experiments show that the optimum time window for stabilizing the estimation results cannot be shorter than three years. In the experimental area, the estimated SOC content can generally reflect the spatial distribution of the measurements, with a root mean square error of 0.099 m^3 m^-3, a mean bias of 0.043 m^3 m^-3, and a correlation coefficient of 0.695. The estimated SOC content is not sensitive to the temporal frequency of the soil moisture data input. Even if the temporal frequency is as low as that of current soil moisture products derived from passive microwave satellites, the estimation result is still stable. Therefore, by combining a high-quality satellite soil moisture product and a parameter optimization method, it is possible to obtain grid-scale effective parameter values, such as SOC content,for an LSM and improve the simulation ability of the LSM.     

Seasonal variations of stable isotope in precipitation and moisture transport at Yushu,eastern Tibetan Plateau

Precipitation δ 18O at Yushu, eastern Tibetan Plateau, shows strong fluctuation and lack of clear seasonality. The seasonal pattern of precipitation stable isotope at Yushu is apparently different from either that of the southwest monsoon region to the south or that of the inland region to the north. This different seasonal pattern probably reflects the shift of different moisture sources. In this paper, we present the spatial comparison of the seasonal patterns of precipitation δ 18O, and calculate the moisture transport flux by using the NCAR/NCEP reanalysis data. This allows us to discuss the relation between moisture transport flux and precipitation δ 18O. This study shows that both the southwest monsoon from south and inland air mass transport from north affected the seasonal precipitation δ 18O at Yushu, eastern Tibetan Plateau. Southwest monsoon brings the main part of the moisture, but southwest transport flux is weaker than in the southern part of the Tibetan Plateau. However, contribution of the inland moisture from north or local evaporation moisture is enhanced. The combined effect is the strong fluctuation of summer precipitation δ 18O at Yushu and comparatively poor seasonality.     

Multi-scale heterogeneity of soil moisture following snow thawing in Haloxylon ammodendron shrubland

Spatial variation of soil moisture after snow thawing in South Gurbantunggut was quantitatively studied using ANOVA and geostatistics at various scales. The results show that the soil moisture heterogeneity varies along with spatial scales. At the shrub individual scale, there is a gradient in soil moisture from shrub-canopied area to canopy margin and to the interspaces between shrubs. At the community scale, soil moisture is highly autocorrelated and the semivariogram is fitted as spherical model, with an 89.6% structural variance and a range of 4.02 m. In addition, Kringing map indicates that the soil moisture distribution pattern after snow thawing is highly consistent with the shrub patch pattern. At the typical inter-dune transect scale, soil moisture presents a pattern of high value at inter-dune depression and low value at dune, and this variation is fitted as Gaussian model with a structural variance of 95.8% and a range of 66.16 m. The range is comparable with the scale of topography zoning, suggesting that the topography pattern controls the pattern of snowmelt at this scale. The evidence indicates that the heterogeneity of soil moisture at various scales is controlled by various land surface processes after snow thawing. For Gurbantunggut Desert, the spatial heterogeneity of snowmelt at various scales is ecologically valuable, because it promotes the utilization efficiency of the snowmelt for the desert vegetation.     

An investigation into the three-dimensional cloud structure over East Asia from the CALIPSO-GOCCP Data

The spatial distribution of clouds and their seasonal variations, and the three-dimensional(3D) cloud structures over East Asia have been analyzed with the CALIPSO-GOCCP data during the period from 2007 to 2012. The results show that there is a large cloud fraction greater than 0.7 over southern China, and the largest cloud fraction appears in southwest China. Besides, a large cloud fraction occurs over the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau. The total and high cloud fractions show notable variations with seasons, while the middle and low cloud fractions vary a little. As for cloud vertical structure, significant differences of the cloud vertical distributions are observed between over land and ocean. Cloud fractions and the height of the maximum cloud fractions decline gradually with the increasing latitude, except for the vertical-latitude profiles over the Tibetan Plateau regions. The longitude-vertical cross sections show similar patterns from the longitude 70° E to 140° E, except the profiles with large cloud fractions over the Tibetan Plateau. From the horizontal distribution patterns and vertical structures of the clouds over East Asia, it is concluded that the huge terrain of the Tibetan Plateau has significant impacts on the cloud formation over the Tibetan Plateau region and the areas to the east. At last, the clouds from the CALIPSO-GOCCP observations are compared to those from the ERA-Interim reanalysis data. The results indicate that the ERA-Interim reanalysis data provide reasonable spatial distribution patterns and the vertical structures in terms of the total cloud fraction over East Asia. However, the total cloud fraction was underestimated about 20% by the ERA-Interim reanalysis data over most parts of East Asia, especially over the neighboring areas east of the Tibetan Plateau. Additionally, the ERA-interim reanalysis data overestimate the cloud fractions at each level in the vertical direction.     

A physics-based statistical algorithm for retrieving land surface temperature from AMSR-E passive microwave data

AMSR-E and MODIS are two EOS (Earth Observing System) instruments on board the Aqua satellite. A regression analysis between the brightness of all AMSR-E bands and the MODIS land surface tem-perature product indicated that the 89 GHz vertical polarization is the best single band to retrieve land surface temperature. According to simulation analysis with AIEM,the difference of different frequen-cies can eliminate the influence of water in soil and atmosphere,and also the surface roughness partly. The analysis results indicate that the radiation mechanism of surface covered snow is different from others. In order to retrieve land surface temperature more accurately,the land surface should be at least classified into three types:water covered surface,snow covered surface,and non-water and non-snow covered land surface. In order to improve the practicality and accuracy of the algorithm,we built different equations for different ranges of temperature. The average land surface temperature er-ror is about 2―3℃ relative to the MODIS LST product.     

Regional distribution and diurnal variation of deep convective systems over the Asian monsoon region

Using 12 years of data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM)-based Precipitation Radar(PR),spatial and diurnal variations of deep convective systems(DCSs)over the Asian monsoon region are analyzed.The DCSs are defined by a 20 dBZ echo top extending 14 km.The spatial distribution of DCSs genesis is also discussed,with reference to the National Centers for Environmental Prediction(NCEP)reanalysis data.The results show that DCSs occur mainly over land.They concentrate in south of 20°N during the pre-monsoon season,and then move distinctly to mid-latitude regions,with the most active region on the south slope of the Himalayas during monsoon season.DCSs over the Tibetan Plateau are more frequent than those in central-eastern China,but smaller in horizontal scale and weaker in convective intensity.DCSs in central-eastern China have more robust updrafts and generate more lightning flashes than in other Asian monsoon regions.The horizontal scale of DCSs over the ocean is larger than that over the other regions,and the corresponding minimum infrared(IR)brightness temperature is lower,whereas the convective intensity is weaker.Continental DCSs are more common from noon through midnight,and DCSs over the Tibetan Plateau are more frequently from noon through evening.Oceanic DCSs frequency has a weaker diurnal cycle with dawn maximum,and diurnal variation of DCSs over the tropical maritime continent is consistent with that over the continent.     

Azimuthal anisotropy of Rayleigh waves beneath the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas

The crustal and upper mantle azimuthal anisotropy of the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas was studied by Rayleigh wave tomography. We collected sufficient broadband digital seismograms trav-ersing the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas from available stations, including especially some data from the temporary stations newly deployed in Yunnan, eastern Tibet, and western Sichuan. They made an adequate path coverage in most regions to achieve a reasonable resolution for the inversion. The model resolution tests show that the anisotropic features of scope greater than 400 km and strength greater than 2% are reliable. The azimuthal anisotropy pattern inside the Tibetan Plateau was similar to the characteristic of tectonic partition. The crustal anisotropy strength is greater than 2% in most re-gions of East Tibet, and the anisotropy shows clockwise rotation surrounding the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. Vertically, the anisotropy direction indicates a coherent pattern within the upper crust, lower crust, and lithosphere mantle of the Tibetan Plateau, which also is consistent with GPS velocity field and SKS fast polarization directions. The result supports that the crust-mantle deformation beneath the Tibetan Plateau is vertically coherent. The anisotropy strength of crust and lithospheric upper mantle in Yunnan outside the Tibetan Plateau is lower than 2%, so SKS splitting from core-mantle boundary to station should largely be attributed to the anisotropy of asthenosphere.     

Influence of environmental factors on land-surface water and heat exchange during dry and wet periods in the growing season of semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau

On the basis of information from the project "Land-surface Processes and their Experimental Study on the Chinese Loess Plateau", we analyzed differences in land-surface water and heat processes during the main dry and wet periods of the semiarid grassland growing season in Yuzhong County, as well as the influences of these environmental factors. Studies have shown that there are significant differences in changes of land-surface temperature and humidity during dry and wet periods. Daily average normalized temperature has an overall vertical distribution of "forward tilting" and "backward tilting" during dry and wet periods, respectively. During the dry period, shallow soil above 20-cm depth is the active temperature layer. The heat transfer rate in soil is obviously different during dry and wet periods. During the dry period, the ratio of sensible heat flux to net radiation(H/Rn) and the value of latent heat flux to net radiation(LE/Rn) have a linear relationship with 5-cm soil temperature; during the wet period, these have a nonlinear relationship with 5-cm soil temperature, and soil temperature of 16°C is the critical temperature for changes in the land-surface water and heat exchange trend on a daily scale. During the dry period, H/Rn and LE/Rn have a linear relationship with soil water content. During the wet period, these have a nonlinear relationship with 5-cm soil water content, and 0.21 m3 m?3 is the critical point for changes in the land-surface water and heat exchange trend at daily scale. During the dry period, for vapor pressure deficit less than 0.7 k Pa, H/Rn rises with increased vapor pressure deficit, whereas LE/Rn decreases with that increase. When that deficit is greater than 0.7 k Pa, both H/Rn and LE/Rn tend to be constant. During the wet period, H/Rn increases with the vapor pressure deficit, whereas LE/Rn decreases. The above characteristics directly reflect the effect of differences in land-surface environmental factors during land-surface water and heat exchange processes, and indirectly reflect the influences of cloud precipitation processes on those processes.     

Can the tropical storms originated from the Bay of Bengal impact the precipitation and soil moisture over the Tibetan Plateau?

This study investigates the impacts of tropical storms originated from the Bay of Bengal(BOBTSs) on the precipitation and soil moisture over the Tibetan Plateau(TP) in April–June(AMJ) and September–December(SOND) during 1981–2011 based on the best track dataset provided by Joint Typhoon Warning Centre(JTWC). Results indicate that there are about 1.35 BOBTSs influence the TP in each year and most of them occurred in May and October, and the BOBTSs in AMJ influence the TP with larger extension and higher latitudes than those in SOND. The maximum regional precipitation induced by the BOBTSs accounts for more than 50% for the total precipitation in the corresponding month and about 20% for the season. Further analysis reveals that the surface soil moisture anomalies induced by the BOBTSs can persist only 20–25 days in AMJ, and the case is also true for the snow depth in SOND. Numerical simulations by using the regional climate model of Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) suggest that the soil moisture anomalies in the sub-surface can last 2 months whereas for the surface it can persist only about 20 days, which agrees well with the observation analysis. Overall, the effect of the preceding BOBTSs on the snow depth and soil moisture anomalies over the TP cannot maintain to summer, and there is no robust connection between the BOBTSs and summer precipitation anomalies in East China. Moreover, since the mid-1990 s, the spring rainfall induced by the BOBTSs over the TP seems to be enhanced to a certain degree because of the intensified BOBTSs.     

An examination of summer precipitation over Asia based on TRMM/TMI

A 6-year dataset of summer monthly mean precipitation derived from Tropical Precipitation Measure-ment Mission (TRMM)-Microwave Imager (TMI) was used to delineate the spatial distribution patterns of precipitation throughout Asian areas, which indicates that there are three rainfall centers located at the northern coast of the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea and the western equatorial Pacific Warm Pool, respectively. Based upon the analysis of horizontal distribution, the capability of TMI for characterizing terrestrial and maritime precipitation has been evaluated and compared with Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) dataset. It was found that TMI and GPCP are well consistent with each other, while a few significant differences occur at several regions over land. By investigating rainfall esti-mates over six specific locations in Asia, a systematic underestimation of TMI was demonstrated, which could be explained by the inherent deficiency within TMI terrestrial algorithm relying on scat-tering signal from ice particles in a precipitation system. A further analysis shows that the highly in-homogeneous distribution of rain gauges employed by GPCP contributes a great deal to the significant discrepancy between GPCP and TMI, especially over regions surrounding the Tibetan Plateau where rain gauges are quite scarce.     

Modeling permafrost properties in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau

Water and heat dynamics in the active layer at a monitoring site in the Tanggula Mountains, located in the permafrost region of the Qinghai-Xizang(Tibet) Plateau(QXP), were studied using the physical-process-based COUPMODEL model, including the interaction between soil temperature and moisture under freeze-thaw cycles. Meteorological, ground temperature and moisture data from different depths within the active layer were used to calibrate and validate the model. The results indicate that the calibrated model satisfactorily simulates the soil temperatures from the top to the bottom of the soil layers as well as the moisture content of the active layer in permafrost regions. The simulated soil heat flux at depths of 0 to 20 cm was consistent with the monitoring data, and the simulations of the radiation balance components were reasonable. Energy consumed for phase change was estimated from the simulated ice content during the freeze/thaw processes from 2007 to 2008. Using this model, the active layer thickness and the energy consumed for phase change were predicted for future climate warming scenarios. The model predicts an increase of the active layer thickness from the current 330 cm to approximately 350–390 cm as a result of a 1–2°C warming. However, the effect active layer thickness of more precipitation is limited when the precipitation is increased by 20%–50%. The COUPMODEL provides a useful tool for predicting and understanding the fate of permafrost in the QXP under a warming climate.     

Soil moisture drought detection and multi-temporal variability across China

Soil moisture droughts can trigger abnormal changes of material and energy cycles in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system,leading to important effects on local ecosystem,weather,and climate.Drought detection and understanding benefit disaster alleviation,as well as weather and climate predictions based on the understanding the land-atmosphere interactions.We thus simulated soil moisture using land surface model CLM3.5 driven with observed climate in China,and corrected wet bias in soil moisture simulations via introducing soil porosity parameter into soil water parameterization scheme.Then we defined soil moisture drought to quantify spatiotemporal variability of droughts.Over the period from 1951 to 2008,40%of months(to the sum of 12×58)underwent droughts,with the average area of 54.6%of total land area of Mainland China.The annual monthly drought numbers presented a significant decrease in arid regions,but a significant increase in semi-arid and semi-humid regions,a decrease in humid regions but not significant.The Mainland as a whole experienced an increasing drought trend,with77.3%of areal ratio of decrease to increase.The monthly droughts in winter were the strongest but the weakest in summer,impacting 54.3%and 8.4%total area of the Mainland,respectively.The drought lasting three months or more occurred mainly in the semi-arid and semi-humid regions,with probability51.7%,even77.6%,whereas those lasting 6 and 12 months or more impacted mainly across arid and semi-arid regions.     

A land surface model incorporated with soil freeze/thaw and its application in GAME/Tibet

Land surface process is of great importance in global climate change, moisture and heat exchange in the interface of the earth and atmosphere, human impacts on the environment and eco- system, etc. Soil freeze/thaw plays an important role in cold land surface processes. In this work the diurnal freeze/thaw effects on energy partition in the context of GAME/Tibet are studied. A sophisti- cated land surface model is developed, the particular aspect of which is its physical consideration of soil freeze/thaw and vapor flux. The simultaneous water and heat transfer soil sub-model not only reflects the water flow from unfrozen zone to frozen fringe in freezing/thawing soil, but also demon- strates the change of moisture and temperature field induced by vapor flux from high temperature zone to low temperature zone, which makes the model applicable for various circumstances. The modified Picard numerical method is employed to help with the water balance and convergence of the numerical scheme. Finally, the model is applied to analyze the diurnal energy and water cycle char- acteristics over the Tibetan Plateau using the Game/Tibet datasets observed in May and July of 1998. Heat and energy transfer simulation shows that: (i) There exists a negative feedback mechanism between soil freeze/thaw and soil temperature/ground heat flux; (ii) during freezing period all three heat fluxes do not vary apparently, in spite of the fact that the negative soil temperature is higher than that not considering soil freeze; (iii) during thawing period, ground heat flux increases, and sensible heat flux decreases, but latent heat flux does not change much; and (iv) during freezing period, soil temperature decreases, though ground heat flux increases.     

Improvement of snow depth retrieval for FY3B-MWRI in China

The primary objective of this work is to develop an operational snow depth retrieval algorithm for the FengYun3B Microwave Radiation Imager(FY3B-MWRI)in China.Based on 7-year(2002–2009)observations of brightness temperature by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS(AMSR-E)and snow depth from Chinese meteorological stations,we develop a semi-empirical snow depth retrieval algorithm.When its land cover fraction is larger than 85%,we regard a pixel as pure at the satellite passive microwave remote-sensing scale.A 1-km resolution land use/land cover(LULC)map from the Data Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences,is used to determine fractions of four main land cover types(grass,farmland,bare soil,and forest).Land cover sensitivity snow depth retrieval algorithms are initially developed using AMSR-E brightness temperature data.Each grid-cell snow depth was estimated as the sum of snow depths from each land cover algorithm weighted by percentages of land cover types within each grid cell.Through evaluation of this algorithm using station measurements from 2006,the root mean square error(RMSE)of snow depth retrieval is about 5.6 cm.In forest regions,snow depth is underestimated relative to ground observation,because stem volume and canopy closure are ignored in current algorithms.In addition,comparison between snow cover derived from AMSR-E and FY3B-MWRI with Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)snow cover products(MYD10C1)in January 2010 showed that algorithm accuracy in snow cover monitoring can reach 84%.Finally,we compared snow water equivalence(SWE)derived using FY3B-MWRI with AMSR-E SWE products in the Northern Hemisphere.The results show that AMSR-E overestimated SWE in China,which agrees with other validations.     

Land use changes and their relations with carbon cycles over the past 300 a in China

Land use and land cover in China have changed greatly during the past 300 a, indicated by the rapid abrupt decrease of forest land area and the rapid increase of cropland area, which can affect terrestrial carbon cycle greatly. The first-hand materials are used to analyze main characteristics for land use and land cover changes in China during the study period. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study. The cropland area in China kept increasing from 60.78×106 hm2 in 1661 to 96.09×106 hm2 in 1998. Correspondingly, the forest land area decreased from 248.13×106 hm2 in 1700 to 109.01×106 hm2 in 1949. Affected by such changes, the terrestrial ecosystem carbon storage decreased in the mean time. Car-bon lost from land use and land cover changes mainly consist of the loss from vegetation biomass and soil. In the past 300 a, about 3.70 PgC was lost from vegetation biomass, and emissions from soil ranged from 0.80 to 5.84 PgC. The moderate evaluation of soil losses was 2.48 PgC. The total loss from vegetation and soil was between 4.50 and 9.54 PgC. The moderate and optimum evaluation was 6.18 PgC. Such carbon losses distribution varied spatially from region to region. Carbon lost more significantly in Northeast China and Southwest China than in other regions, because losses of forest land in these two regions were far greater than in the other regions during the past 300 a. And losses of carbon in the other regions were also definite, such as Inner Mongolia, the western part of South China, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. But the carbon lost very little from the traditional agricultural regions in China, such as North China and East China. Studies on the relationship between land use and land cover change and carbon cycle in China show that the land use activities, especially those related to agriculture and forest management, began to affect terrestrial carbon storage positively in recent years.     

Temporal and spatial features of the soil moisture in boreal spring in eastern China

Soil moisture data of 45 years from European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and the in situ observational data are used to study the temporal and spatial characteristics of the soil moisture in boreal spring in the area to the east of 100°E in China. Results show that ERA-40 soil moisture well reproduces the temporal and spatial features of observations. ERA-40 data capture the spatial pattern that the soils in Northeast China and Southwest China are wetter than those...     

Characterizing the dynamics of soil organic carbon in grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Carbon dynamics of grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau may play an important role in regional and global carbon cycles. The CENTURY model (Version 4.5) is used to examine temporal and spatial variations of soil organic carbon (SOC) in grasslands on the Plateau for the period from 1960 to 2002. The model successfully simulates the dynamics of aboveground carbon and soil surface SOC at the soil depth of 0-20 cm and the simulated results agree well to the measurements. Examination of SOC for eight typical grasslands shows different patterns of temporal variation in different ecosystems in 1960-2002. The extent of temporal variation increases with the increase of SOC of ecosystem. SOC increases first and decreases quickly then during the period from 1990 to 2000. Spatially, SOC density obtained for the equilibrium condition declines gradually from the southeast to the northwest on the plateau and showed a high heterogeneity in the eastern plateau. The results suggest that (i) SOC den-sity in the alpine grasslands shows remarkable response to climate change during the 42 years, and (ii) the net carbon exchange rate between the alpine grassland ecosystems and the atmosphere increases from 1990 to 2000 as compared with that before 1990.     

A land surface soil moisture data assimilation framework in consideration of the model subgrid-scale heterogeneity and soil water thawing and freezing

The Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) is well known and widely used in land data assimilation for its high precision and simple operation. The land surface models used as the forecast operator in a land data assimilation system are usually designed to consider the model subgrid-heterogeneity and soil water thawing and freezing. To neglect their effects could lead to some errors in soil moisture assimilation. The dual EnKF method is employed in soil moisture data assimilation to build a soil moisture data as- similation framework based on the NCAR Community Land Model version 2.0 (CLM 2.0) in considera- tion of the effects of the model subgrid-heterogeneity and soil water thawing and freezing: Liquid volumetric soil moisture content in a given fraction is assimilated through the state filter process, while solid volumetric soil moisture content in the same fraction and solid/liquid volumetric soil moisture in the other fractions are optimized by the parameter filter. Preliminary experiments show that this dual EnKF-based assimilation framework can assimilate soil moisture more effectively and precisely than the usual EnKF-based assimilation framework without considering the model subgrid-scale heteroge- neity and soil water thawing and freezing. With the improvement of soil moisture simulation, the soil temperature-simulated precision can be also improved to some extent.