Rapid Prototyping Capabilities for Evaluating Current and Future NASA Data in Multi-Scale Sensitivity Analysis in Watershed Hydrology Modeling

This paper presents current research activities taking place at the GeoResources Institute, Mississippi State University, on the use of National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) data within the rapid prototyping capability (RPC) architecture in a hydrological modeling and simulation application at the watershed scale for selected watersheds in coastal and upland areas. The research effort evaluates the usefulness of MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land cover data, simulated Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) land-cover data, NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) topographical data, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Land Information System (LIS) output data, to provide parameter data for input into hydrological models. Sensitivity explorations on the impact of land-cover datasets of varied scale and quality (MODIS and VIIRS among others) in land use parameter values exported to hydrological models are presented. Additional results on the use of multi-scale topographical datasets, including Shuttle SRTM data, for evaluation of their impact in watershed delineation are also presented. Soil moisture estimates available through LIS are used to validate hydrological model's predicted soil moisture values in the watersheds under study. Although LIS is a high performance, terra-scale system that performs 1-km-resolution global land data assimilation, this research presents results on testing LIS output data at watershed scale. The research shows that NASA's data streams are as useful as current land use and topographical datasets provided by other data sources.