NCA-LDAS: An Integrated Terrestrial Water Analysis System for Development, Evaluation, and Dissemination of Climate Indicators

Michael F Jasinski1, Kristi R Arsenault2, Hiroko K Kato-Beaudoing3,4, John D Bolten5, Jordan Borak6,7, Sujay V Kumar8,9, Christa D Peters-Lidard6, Bailing Li7,10, Yuqiong Liu11, David M Mocko12,13 and Matthew Rodell14, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, United States, (2)SAIC, Greenbelt, United States, (3)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Hydrological Sciences Lab (HSL), Greenbelt, United States, (4)SAIC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD, United States, (6)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, United States, (7)Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, United States, (8)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (9)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (10)NASA GSFC Hydrological Science Laboratory, Greenbelt, United States, (11)NOAA Affiliate, LEN Technologies, Office of Water Prediction, Silver Spring, United States, (12)NASA GSFC/SAIC, Greenbelt, United States, (13)SSAI, Greenbelt, United States, (14)NASA GSFC HSL, Greenbelt, United States
Abstract:
An Integrated Terrestrial Water Analysis System, or NCA-LDAS, has been created to enable development, evaluation, and dissemination of terrestrial hydrologic climate indicators focusing on the continental U.S. The purpose is to provide quantifiable indicators of states and estimated trends in our nation's water stores and fluxes over a wide range of scales and locations, to support improved understanding and management of water resources and numerous related sectors such as agriculture and energy. NCA-LDAS relies on improved modeling of terrestrial hydrology through assimilation of satellite imagery, building upon the legacy of the Land Information System modeling framework (Kumar et al, 2006; Peters-Lidard et al, 2007). It currently employs the Noah or Catchment Land Surface Model, run with a number of satellite data assimilation scenarios. The domain for NCA-LDAS is the continental U.S. at 1/8 degree grid for the period 1979 to present. Satellite-based variables that are assimilated are soil moisture and snow water equivalent from principally microwave sensors such as SMMR, SSM/I and AMSR, snow covered area from multispectral sensors such as AVHRR, and MODIS, and terrestrial water storage from GRACE. Once simulated, output are evaluated in comparison to independent datasets using a variety of metrics using the Land Surface Verification Toolkit (LVT). LVT schemes within NCA-LDAS also include routines for computing standard statistics of time series such means, max, and linear trends, at various scales. The dissemination of the NCA-LDAS, including model descriptions, forcings, parameters, daily output, indicator results and LVT tools, have been made available to the public through dissemination on NASA GES-DISC.
Back to: Climate Indicators: Developing and Testing Indicators to Convey Information to Support Decisions I Posters