Use over Land of Large-Scale Satellite-Derived Fields in the Validation, Forcing, or Data Assimilation of NCEP Global and Regional Prediction Models

The Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) of NCEP uses a fairly wide suite of large-scale satellite-derived fields in the validation, forcing, and/or data assimilation components of the operational and test-bed suites of NCEP coupled and uncoupled global and regional models. This talk will illustrate the use of such satellite products over land, including surface shortwave radiation, land surface temperature (LST), vegetation phenology, snow cover, cloud cover, and precipitation. Many of these products have been developed by NOAA NESDIS, in collaboration with EMC and key external investigators in the university or federal laboratory arena, such as in partnerships sponsored by the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP) of the NOAA Climate Program Office (formerly NOAA Office of Global Programs), or by the NOAA-NASA-DOD Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA). One key illustration will be how the Land/Hydrology Team of EMC uses large-scale satellite-derived fields of LST in combination with ground-based streamflow observations to validate the land surface sensible and latent heat fluxes over regions in NCEP models, as opposed to point-wise validation of these fluxes at flux-station reference sites. The latter point-wise validations are compromised by mismatches in both scale and land- surface properties between scale of the model grid cell (10-50 km) and the plot scale of the local observing site (100-500 m). The presentation will also touch on the growing role (and implications) in data assimilation of applying radiative transfer models, including land-surface emission models, in conjunction with adjoint models or Kalman filter techniques, in the direct assimilation of satellite brightness temperatures.