High-resolution satellite products improve hydrological modeling in northern Italy

[摘要] Satellite-based Earth observations (EO) are an accurate andreliable data source for atmospheric and environmental science. Theirincreasing spatial and temporal resolutions, as well as the seamlessavailability over ungauged regions, make them appealing for hydrologicalmodeling. This work shows recent advances in the use of high-resolutionsatellite-based EO data in hydrological modeling. In a set of sixexperiments, the distributed hydrological model Continuum is set up for thePo River basin (Italy) and forced, in turn, by satellite precipitation andevaporation, while satellite-derived soil moisture (SM) and snow depths areingested into the model structure through a data-assimilation scheme.Further, satellite-based estimates of precipitation, evaporation, and riverdischarge are used for hydrological model calibration, and results arecompared with those based on ground observations. Despite the high densityof conventional ground measurements and the strong human influence in thefocus region, all satellite products show strong potential for operationalhydrological applications, with skillful estimates of river dischargethroughout the model domain. Satellite-based evaporation and snow depthsmarginally improve (by 2 % and 4 %) the mean Kling–Gupta efficiency(KGE) at 27 river gauges, compared to a baseline simulation(KGE mean =  0.51) forced by high-quality conventional data. Precipitationhas the largest impact on the model output, though the satellite data onaverage shows poorer skills compared to conventional data. Interestingly, amodel calibration heavily relying on satellite data, as opposed toconventional data, provides a skillful reconstruction of river discharges,paving the way to fully satellite-driven hydrological applications.

[学科分类] 妇产科学