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Project

Improved Land Surface Variable Records by Assimilation of Microwave Remote Sensing Data

The dissertation will be conducted as part of the research project CONSOLIDATION. The goal of the project is to construct long-term (40 years), high resolution (10km, 3-hourly) climate data records of land surface variables by assimilating microwave remote sensing measurements from multiple sensors using the land surface model NoahMP. This is one of the first attempts of a joint assimilation of satellite based surface soil moisture (SSM) and vegetation optical depth (VOD), and the first joint assimilation of SSM and VOD over a time period of this length. This dissertation focusses on the VOD assimilation, while another PhD student at KU Leuven will work on the assimilation of SSM. As prerequisites for the assimilation of VOD, an observation operator will be constructed using statistical methods. Then, VOD-only as well as joint assimilation of VOD and SSM will be performed. Finally, the assimilated land surface variable record will be studied to asses long-term climate trends in soil and vegetation water content.

Date:7 Apr 2021 →  Today
Keywords:VOD, Land surface modelling, Data Assimilation
Disciplines:Remote sensing
Project type:PhD project