2012 AGU Chapman Conference on Remote Sensing of the ...

which can be monitored as an indication of the on-goingdynamical processes. The Gravity Recovery and ClimateExperiment (GRACE) is a mission designed to make thesemeasurements. The major cause of the time varying mass iswater motion and the GRACE mission has provided acontinuous measurement sequences, now approaching 10years, which characterizes the seasonal cycle of masstransport between the oceans, land, cryosphere andatmosphere; its inter-annual variability; and the secular, orlong period, mass transport. Measurements of continentalaquifer mass change, polar ice mass change and oceanbottom currents are examples of new remote sensingobservations enabled by the GRACE satellite measurements.Recent emphasis on providing a rapid product withenhanced temporal resolution has opened the possibilities ofusing the GRACE measurement for operational hydrologyproducts. This presentation will review the current missionstatus and science accomplishments, discuss project effortsto improve the spatial and temporal sampling, describe theimprovement expected with the planned RL05 data releaseand discuss the impact of these results on contemporaryearth system studies studies.Teng, William L.NASA Giovanni: A Tool for Visualizing, Analyzing,and Inter-comparing Soil Moisture DataTeng, William L. 1, 3 ; Rui, Hualan 2, 3 ; Vollmer, Bruce 3 ; de Jeu,Richard 4 ; Fang, Fan 2, 3 ; Lei, Guang-Dih 2, 31. Wyle IS, Greenbelt, MD, USA2. Adnet, Greenbelt, MD, USA3. NASA GES DISC, Greenbelt, MD, USA4. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsThere are many existing satellite soil moisturealgorithms and their derived data products, but there is nosimple way for a user to inter-compare the products oranalyze them together with other related data (e.g.,precipitation). An environment that facilitates such intercomparisonand analysis would be useful for validation ofsatellite soil moisture retrievals against in situ data and fordetermining the relationships between different soilmoisture products. The latter relationships are particularlyimportant for applications users, for whom the continuity ofsoil moisture data, from whatever source, is critical. A recentexample was provided by the sudden demise of Aqua AMSR-E and the end of its soil moisture data production, as well asthe end of other soil moisture products that had used theAMSR-E brightness temperature data. The purpose of thecurrent effort is to create an environment that facilitatesinter-comparisons of soil moisture algorithms and theirderived data products. As part of two NASA ROSES-fundedprojects, with end user project team members from NOAANational Weather Service (NWS) and USDA WorldAgricultural Outlook Board (WAOB), three daily Level 3 soilmoisture products have been incorporated into a prototypeNASA Giovanni Soil Moisture portal: (1) AMSR-E/Aqua(POC: E. Njoku, JPL), (2) Land Surface Microwave EmissionModel (LSMEM)-TMI (POC: E. Wood, Princeton U.), and (3)Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM)-AMSR-E (POC: R.de Jeu, Vrije U. Amsterdam). The portal also contains TRMM3B42-V6 precipitation and AIRS/Aqua surface airtemperature data and has a suite of basic services (lat-lonmap, time series, scatter plot, and animation). Other existingGiovanni services will be added as appropriate. As well, newsoil moisture and related products will be added, resourcespermitting. Current work is focused on replacing the lostAMSR-E/Aqua data stream, by applying LPRM to theTRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and WindSat brightnesstemperatures. Other possible soil moisture products includethe Single-Channel Algorithm (SCA)-AMSR-E (POC: T.Jackson, USDA ARS) and model outputs from the GlobalLand Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and the NorthAmerican Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS)(aggregation to daily would be needed for the latter two).Examples of Giovanni outputs will be shown, of somenotable recent events, such as the Texas drought of summer2011. The Giovanni Soil Moisture portal is versatile, withmany possible uses, for applications such as natural disasters(e.g., landslides) and agriculture (e.g., crop yield forecasts). Itshould also prove useful for pre-launch SMAP activities (e.g.,“Early Adopters” program).Thakur, Praveen K.Inter Comparison of Satellite and Ground BasedRainfall Products - A Case Study for IndiaThakur, Praveen K. 1 ; Nikam, Bhaskar R. 1 ; Garg, Vaibhav 1 ;Aggarwal, S. P. 11. Water Resources Division, Indian Institute of RemoteSesning (IIRS), Dehradun, IndiaRainfall is one of the most important hydrologicalcomponent in hydrology, earth’s water and energy cycle andwater balance studies. Accurate information on amount andintensity of rainfall is important for agriculture and powerwater management, flood and drought studies andgroundwater recharge. Spatial and temporal variations inrainfall necessitates the use ground based rain gauges,weather radars and space based, satellite derived rainfallestimates. In present study, the inter comparison of variousgridded rainfall products of India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission’s(TRMM) (3B42 and 3B43), Climate prediction centre (CPC)and Asian Precipitation - Highly-Resolved ObservationalData Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources(APHRODITE’s Water Resources) data has been carried outfor entire India. Analysis was done on full country as well asstate and agro-climate zone wise. This study has used IMD’srain gauge derived gridded rainfall data as the base rainfallfor comparing the other rainfall data products. This studyshows that all the satellite based rainfall products areunderestimating the total rainfall, except for year 2004 asshown in figure below. It was found that there is consistentunderestimation of 7.0 to 10 % in total annual rainfall. It isconcluded that, in case of non-availability of IMD rainfalldata, these satellite based rainfall products can be utilized141