Open-Source Data Assimilation for Land Models and Multiscale Observations.

The Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART) has been coupled to severalland models including the Community Land Model (CLM),the Community Noah Land Surface Model (Noah LSM), WRF-Hydro, andthe CSIRO Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) model. Many typesof observational data ranging from in-situ soil moisture probes totower-based fluxes to satellite estimates of moisture have been successfully assimilated to produce model-based estimates of quantities that are moreconsistent with the information content of the observations and yet havethe desirable spatio-temporal attributes of the gridded model output. Examples of assimilation research with each of the models will be shown. One of the challenges for land data assimilation systems is the collectionand integration of the observational data given multiple datastreams andcollection agencies. The challenges and considerations of ingesting andusing a wide variety of data in many different formats will be discussedwith a view of what is needed for a community resource.