Scaling Properties and Spatial Interpolation of Soil Moisture

Abstract

This final report describes the research accomplishments of a one year project that was conducted at the Pennsylvania State University. Work on this project continues under a related four year grant at Colorado State University. The primary objective of the first year of this project was to develop the base of knowledge necessary to devise an interpolation or downscaling method for soil moisture data that accounts for the role of topography. In order to achieve this long-term objective the project examined the statistical properties of both observed and simulated soil moisture fields. Soil moisture was analyzed at a given scale and over a range of scales. A probability-distributed model was developed to relate space-time mean soil moisture to climatic forcing as well as runoff and evapotranspiration. Laboratory experiments of basin evolution were analyzed to gain a better understanding of topographic scaling and its origin, and a numerical landscape evolution model was devised that incorporates subsurface flow. The model was used to study the impact of subsurface flow in landscape dynamics and the evolution of saturated areas over time.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 24, 2004
Accession Number
ADA426497

Entities

People

  • Jeffrey D. Niemann

Organizations

  • Pennsylvania State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Climate Change
  • Colorado
  • Computational Science
  • Data Sets
  • Drainage Basins
  • Dynamics
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Geography
  • Groundwater
  • Probability
  • Remote Sensing
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Surface Roughness
  • Topography
  • United States
  • Water Resources

Readers

  • Agricultural Chemistry/Soil Science
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.

Technology Areas

  • Space