Catchment Monitoring for Scaling and Assimilation of

Soil Moisture and Streamflow

C. Rüdigera, R.E. Davidsonb, H.M. Hemakumarab, J.P. Walkera,J.D. Kalmab, G.R. Willgoosec, and P.R. Houserd

a Dept. of Civil & Env. Eng., University of Melbourne, Australiab School of Engineering, University of Newcastle, Australia

c School of Geography, University of Leeds, United Kingdomd Hydrological Sciences Branch, NASA GSFC, USA

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Overview

• Applications of soil moisture data

• Remote sensing of soil moisture

• Field site description

• Future work

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Soil Moisture? What for?Drought monitoring

Flood prediction

Irrigation policies

Weather forecasting

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

New Methods and Approaches

New Methods:• Downscaling of low resolution measurements• Estimation of root zone soil moisture from satellite

measurements• Estimation of soil moisture under dense vegetation

Approaches:• Development of algorithms for downscaling• Assimilation of surface soil moisture data for retrieval of

root zone soil moisture• Assimilation of streamflow data for soil moisture

estimates

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Field Site

Goulburn River Catchment (NSW)– Proximity to Newcastle– Size and geophysical

properties– Cleared areas– Division into 4 subcatchments– Distance to the sea

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Vegetation and Soils

50km

40km

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Instrumentation• Installation of …

– 2 weather stations and several pluviometers– 26 soil moisture monitoring sites– 1 flume and 5 stream gauges

• Use of …– 3 existing weather stations– 3 stream gauges– numerous rain gauges

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Installation of Soil Moisture Sensors

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Weather Stations Project Stream Gauges

N

S

M

D

T

D M S

T

T

Solar Panel

Logger Box

Logger Box

TDR

TDR

Locationof Instrumentation

Soil Moisture SitesDIPNR Stream Gauges

Subcatchments

TemperatureRel. Humidity

Pluviometer Net radiometer

Wind speedWnd direction

2 x Heat Flux Plates

CS616

8 x CS T107

Solar radiation

Logger box

Solar panel

TDR

Microcatchment

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

AMSR-E Sampling Procedure• 4 Teams

1

11

1

11

1

11

1

11

• 3 Days (5 times)– Day 1

21

211

2

21

211

221

211

2

21

211

2 – Day 2 (AMSR-E)213321132

213321132

213321132

213321132

– Day 3

• Samples– 10-15/box (6.6 x 8.3 km)

– 120-180/day– 1cm and 6cm moisture– soil, vegetation, rocks– GPS coordinates

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Future Applications of the Data

• Collected data will be used for …– Scaling purposes– Soil moisture data assimilation into an LSM– Streamflow data assimilation into an LSM– AMSR-E validation

Christoph RüdigerMODSIM03

Acknowledgments

• Australian Research Council (ARC-DP grant 0209724)

• National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), USA

• National Institute for Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New Zealand