Organization:
Research Title: Land Surface Hydrology
Funding Level (millions of dollars):
| FY94 | 2.7 |
|---|---|
| FY95 | 2.2 |
| FY96 | 2.7 |
Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) Component:
(a) Subcommittee: Global Change Research Subcommittee (100%)
(b) Environmental Issue: Natural variability (75%); Large-scale changes
in land-use
(15%); Water availability and allocation (10%)
(c) Research Activity: System structure and function: Observations (20%);
Understanding
(80%)
Organizational Component:
Science Division
Office of Mission to Planet Earth
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546
Point of Contact:
Ming Ying Wei
Phone: 202-358-0771
E-Mail: mwei@hq.nasa.gov
Research Goals:
To develop understanding, modeling and prediction of continental water cycle
processes,
with particular emphasis on remote sensing and four-dimensional data
assimilation
of
precipitation and soil moisture.
Research Description:
NASA's Water Cycle Processes Program supports research in three interweaving
categories aimed at improving the observation and theory of continental water cycle
processes which contribute to the variability of the ocean-atmosphere-land system;
the
categories are:
Observational studies of hydrologic variables, e.g. precipitation, soil moisture (40%).
Diagnostic and analytical studies of land surface hydrology and land-atmosphere exchange of energy and water (40%), including scaling of the dynamic behavior of the atmospheric boundary layer and land surface water and energy balance in both freezing (snow and ice) and non-freezing environments, in the presence of topography.
Development of coupled meteorological-hydrological models, including four- dimensional data assimilation techniques (20%), with emphasis on the reciprocal influences between regional and global climate and land cover/use change.
Program Interfaces:
WCRP's GEWEX Continental-scale International Project (GCIP), the International
Satellite
Land-Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP), and IGBP's Biological Aspect of
Hydrological
Cycle (BAHC).
Program Milestones:
January 1994: Soil Moisture Workshop conducted in Tiburon, CA; feasibility project
of data assimilation for soil moisture initiated in 1995.
Policy Payoffs:
(a) A demonstration of an observational strategy for soil climate based on the
combined
use of remote sensing and in situ data and physically--based models, a technique
well exploited in meteorology and, to some extent, oceanography. (b) Provision of
process-level
understanding to global water cycle and Earth System modeling and prediction. (c)
A better scientific basis for assessing consequences of changes in land and water
management
(e.g., irrigation, deforestation). (d) Provision of timely information for agricultural
planning.