TITLE:

INTEGRATING SATELLITE DERIVED TERRESTRIAL PRECIPITATION AND WATER STORAGE CHANGES WITH THE HILLSLOPE RIVER ROUTING (HRR) IN THE CONGO RIVER BASIN

DATE:

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

R. Edward Beighley, Associate Professor
Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering,
San Diego State University

ABSTRACT:

In this study, estimates of terrestrial water storages derived from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) are used to constrain the Hillslope River Routing (HRR) model in the Congo River Basin. The HRR model provides total water storage changes at a similar scale by integrating vertical water balance, lateral surface and subsurface kinematic wave routing and channel/floodplain diffusion wave routing models. The period of study is 2003 through 2008. The forcing data used in the HRR model are from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Missions (TRMM) and include precipitation, air temperature, albedo, cloud cover and leaf area index. The model parameters accounting for the thickness of the rooting zone layer, timing of the subsurface response to the channel network and speed of the flood wave are calibrated using the GRACE estimates of water storage change. The resulting model predictions are compared to in-situ flow data and remotely sensed river stage from the laser altimeter aboard the European Space Agency’s Earth observation satellite – ENVSAT. The results of this study show the predictive capabilities of a large scale hydrologic model driven primarily with satellite data.

HOST:

Jose Castillo

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