A MUlti-scale Soil moisture-Evapotranspiration Dynamics study - AMUSED

The ultimate goal of the "A MUlti-scale Soil moisture-Evapotranspiration Dynamics study - AMUSED" project is to identify the spatial/temporal scale-dependency of key dominant processes that control changes in soil moisture and land-atmosphere interactions. Soil moisture plays a major role in the environment/climate system because the transports of water within the land and the land-atmosphere interface are strongly dependent on the state of soil water in a region. Despite its importance, lack of soil moisture measurements at various spatial scales has limited our understanding of how individual physical factors control soil moisture dynamics. This is especially important given recent efforts develop hyper-resolution hydrometeorological models for operational numerical weather and climate predictions.

AMUSED employs new innovative technology for soil moisture monitoring using cosmic-rays sensors in combination with land surface modeling, satellite remote sensing, and model diagnostics and data assimilation methods. The new cosmic-ray sensors can measure soil moisture at an unprecedented sub-kilometer scale. The technology has revolutionized the field of hydrometeorology because it provides, for the first time, a unique opportunity to fill the gap between soil moisture observations from traditional point-scale sensors and large-scale from satellite remote sensing products.

The proposed 3-year research will focus on the initial COSMOS-UK sites located near the Thames region whose complex interactions of population growth, increases in per capita consumption of resources, changes in land use will likely be impacted by future climate change. The project seeks to identify whether a unified science of land-atmosphere interactions across multiple-scales can be achievable, or if simpler scale-dependent (and sometimes empirical) parameterizations in combination with data assimilation can provide uniquely acceptable predictions of soil moisture dynamics and land surface processes (e.g., evapotranspiration). AMUSED will therefore expand the notion of operational data assimilation implementation by further introducing model diagnostics in order to identify which model structures or parameterizations are likely to affect state estimation via data assimilation. These findings will enhance our current understanding and the representation of soil moisture and surface processes in numerical weather prediction and climate models in the UK.

"A MUlti-scale Soil moisture-Evapotranspiration Dynamics study - AMUSED" will benefit government agencies, industry, and policy/decision makers, stakeholders and public in general in providing, for the first time, an improved understanding of soil moisture dynamics and evapotranspiration losses at unprecedented spatial scales in the UK. Moreover, a mechanism to provide soil moisture estimates at multiple scales will allow for targeted applications to societal and economic benefits. This will provide the basis for improved prediction of hydrometeorological events such as floods and droughts. Impacts are summarized as follows:

Societal and economic impacts:
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH): CEH will benefit from data-knowledge exchange and improved understanding of the use of new cosmic-ray technology in the UK. The use of the COSMIC model developed by the PI provides a key advance in using such novel technology for monitoring purposes and data assimilation/fusion applications. Results obtained under this proposal will be applied to other COSMOS-UK stations to provide a continuous, high-quality monitoring network available for the society and policy/decision makers and stakeholders.

The Environment Agency (EA): The results of this research will enable the EA to improve its flood warning system with a more accurate description of the soil moisture dynamics in the region (and ultimately nationally). This has direct societal and economic impact, as floods and drought continue to cause severe damages in certain areas across the nation.

Met Office (MO): Model's of Earth's weather and climate require accurate fluxes (e.g., momentum, energy, water) across the land-atmosphere interface to solve the equations of atmospheric physics and dynamics. Hence, the MO will benefit from a comprehensive evaluation of the JULES model by focusing on key parameterizations to be improved for operational weather and climate modeling. Furthermore, knowledge on soil moisture profiles can help improve and downscale essential hydrometeorological variables calculated by the Met Office Rainfall and Evaporation Calculation System (MORECS).

Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra): Food security has immense implications on the society and economic growth in the UK, especially under uncertain climatic conditions in the future. Improved hydrological outlooks and consequently more effective mitigation strategies (e.g., drought or flood mitigation) can greatly impact on food availability. Hence, Defra is also a key stakeholder which will benefit from the outcomes of the proposal.

People:
General Public: The general public is directly affected by hydrometeorological events such as floods, droughts, and extreme weather. For example, heavy rainfall on nearly-saturated soils, such as those observed towards the end of 2013 and early 2014, will eventually cause major disruptions due to flood, as broadly informed by the media on television and radio stations. The unprecedented spatial scales studied under this proposal are directly related to how well we can predict such situations in advance. Hence being able to communicate with the public about the basic and relevant importance of soil moisture is extremely beneficial for societal wellbeing. Notice that initial training of a PDRA on six identified "most wanted" skills by NERC's Skills Review 2012 will be carried out in this project, but this can potentially attract more prospective students (both at undergraduate and graduate levels) interested in engineering and environmental sciences, specifically to the research areas highlighted in this proposal.

PI: Of importance, the nature of this funding will ultimately impact the PI of this proposal by ensuring the appropriate financial support to establish a research group on terrestrial hydrometeorology and environmental engineering at the University of Bristol, while establishing the PI as a researcher leader in the subject.