Data Assimilation of SMAP Soil Moisture in a 3-km Regional Model

The NASA Short-Term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center runs a near-real-time version of the NASA Land Information System (LIS) to monitor soil moisture conditions over the Continental US at 3-km resolution. This product is used by partner Weather Forecast Offices for situational awareness for flooding and drought monitoring. We demonstrate the capability of assimilating satellite retrievals of soil moisture from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission into LIS, using preliminary data available to SMAP Early Adopters. The SMAP radiometer product, with a resolution of ~36 km and a volumetric accuracy of 4%, is used, due to uncertainties in the status of the SMAP radar. Retrievals are assimilated into the Noah land surface model within LIS via an Ensemble Kalman Filter. After the release of operational SMAP data in 2016, assimilation of SMAP observations will be incorporated into the SPoRT near-real-time run of LIS.