Characteristics of GLDAS soil-moisture data on the Tibet Plateau

In this paper, the applicability of soil-moisture (SM) datasets of GLDAS (Global Land Data Assimilation System) in an alpine region (Tibet Plateau, TP) is investigated. The relations and discrepancies between the GLDAS-NOAH SM (0~10 cm) and the observations are compared; the possible reasons for errors over the TP are explored. The results show that GLDAS SM biases mainly show up in errors of values in the nonfrozen period (April to October) and changes of SM along with the temperature, especially during the freezing-thawing process in the frozen period (November to March). The biases of GLDAS SM in the nonfrozen period are mainly caused by the GLDAS precipitation-forcing data. The errors of GLDAS SM in the frozen period are speculated to be induced by the freeze-thaw parameterization scheme in the land-surface model.