**December 2005**

**WATER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM ELEMENT**

**2005 ANNUAL REPORT**

**SUMMARY**

The Water Management Program Element addresses concerns and decision
related to water quality and water supply. The goal of the Water
Management Program Element is to encourage water management
organizations to use Earth science data, models, technology and other
capabilities in their decision support tools for problem solving. The
Water Management Program Element partners with Federal agencies,
academia, private firms, and may include international organizations
provided a US partner organization is involved. Examples of the types of
NASA contributions to the water management community include such
possibilities as:

-   Estimating water storage, i.e., snow water equivalent, soil
    moisture, aquifer volumes, reservoir storages, etc.

-   Model derived products, i.e., evapotranspiration, precipitation,
    runoff, ground water recharge, and other four --dimensional data
    assimilation (4DDA) products

-   Water quality, i.e., improved inputs to nonpoint source models,
    turbidity, temperature, etc.

In Fiscal Year 2005 (FY05), the Program Element's priority activities
focused on extending MODIS and North American Lands Data Assimilation
System/ Land Information Systems (LDAS/LIS) products to four management
decision support systems (DSSs): BASINS (Environmental Protection
Agency-EPA), AWARDS (Bureau of Reclamation-BoR), Eta (NOAA) and
RiverWare (BoR).

In FY 2005, significant progress was accomplished in the use of NASA
Earth science satellite and modeling information to support Water
Management activities. A significant milestone was accomplished with a
benchmark report on the use of North American Lands Data Assimilation
System (NLDAS) land surface states to improve the NOAA Eta Model for
weather forecast. The NLDAS modeling system was developed by NASA and
NOAA and a consortium of universities and includes as input several
satellite products including MODIS data. In addition, significant work
was applied towards NASA satellite products adapted for DSTs used by the
BoR and the EPA. A major focus has been customizing the NASA Land
Information Systems (LIS) software and accompanying land surface models
(LSMs) for DST multi-purpose usage. In order to demonstrate the use of
such variables and the capabilities of LIS, an inter-agency
collaboration has been developed between NASA user agencies and a group
of universities: NASA, the BoR, the Desert Research Institute (DRI),
University of Nevada and University of Idaho have joined efforts in four
major projects working on RiverWare and the AWARDS (Agricultural Water
Resources Decision Support) ET-Toolbox. Similarly, NASA along with the
EPA Office of Water and the Chesapeake Bay Program, working with Hunter
College and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies
(UMCES) are making significant progress towards using NASA LIS and
satellite products including MODIS land cover and vegetation index to
support water quality work in the DST BASINS (Better Assessment Science
Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources). There have been numerous other
contributions in support of applying advanced technology to support
various water managers.

**MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS**

***Benchmark Report for NASA Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS)*
*into NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Eta
Mesoscale Forecasting***

*Background:* The NCEP Eta model is the main operational mesoscale model
used by NOAA to produce surface and upper air forecasts over North
America. Eta model forecasts of precipitation, temperature, humidity,
wind, and solar radiation are used by the public and by a wide range of
government agencies and universities as input to DSTs. Initializations
of Eta model forecasts can be improved with the use of NASA data and
models, an approach being investigated by the North American Land Data
Assimilation System E-grid project (NLDASE). NASA data products and
models under consideration include the LIS modeling framework, MODIS
snow, vegetation and temperature data, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
(SRTM) data, AMSR-E soil moisture and SWE data, and TRMM precipitation
data. Better initial land surface conditions will lead to improved
weather forecasts, which will benefit the public in general, and DSTs
which depend on weather forecast input in particular. These DSTs include
NIDIS, NASS, AWIPS, AHPS, CADRE (Crop Assessment Data Retrieval &
Evaluation), ISFS (Invasive Species Forecasting System), MMS (Malaria
Monitoring and Surveillance), NAS-AWRP (National Air Space - Aviation
Weather Research Program), RiverWare, and AWARDS.

*Accomplishment for FY 05:* NASA Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS)
land surface states and MODIS snow cover data were rigorously
benchmarked through comparisons in a series of retrospective NOAA
weather model (Eta Model) simulations. LIS was used to generate initial
states for 20 control simulations and 60 experimental simulations. The
use of LDAS initial conditions, along with use of MODIS snow cover
greatly improved surface forecasts of relative humidity and temperature.
Eastern U.S. bias in 2 meter temperature forecasts from baseline Eta
model simulations improved by 21% versus standard NCEP simulations when
MODIS snow cover was assimilated into NLDAS initial conditions, and
improved by 16% over the western half of the CONUS. Similarly, 2 meter
relative humidity forecasts improved by 78% over the eastern half of the
CONUS and by 15% over the western CONUS versus the NCEP baseline run in
these same simulations. The NLDAS uncoupled initializations approach is
very promising but needs further development before being considered for
operational implementation within NOAA's National Center for
Environmental Prediction (NCEP). We expect NOAA to eventually adopt some
of the techniques and data sets utilized to positive effect in this
study.

*Plans for FY06:* More experimental simulations using winter data to
further refine the model upgrades.

***Continuing work on BoR RiverWare & AWARDS ET Toolbox***

*Background:* The BoR RiverWare is a DSS for reservoir regulation
supported by both BoR and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
RiverWare simulates the routing of the river flow operations through
dams and hydropower plants and maintains water delivery contracts to
irrigators and to recreational, municipal, and industrial users. Even
though BoR uses several hydrological modeling tools for RiverWare,
spatially-distributed fields available from NASA such as soil moisture
and snowpack are not fully accounted for in their operations. Including
NASA fields of soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and snowpack in their
operations should help increase the accuracy of Reclamation's water
resource accounting.

*Accomplishments for FY05:* The main research goals of the collaborative
projects with BoR involve developing an integrated observation-based
modeling system that meets the needs of the BoR regional offices, and
evaluating and benchmarking selected NASA products for the RiverWare and
AWARDS ET-Toolbox Decision Support Tools. Selected LIS water
availability products and satellite MODIS snow cover and land cover
products are the primary focus for inclusion in BoR's DSTs. In FY05,
retrospective studies and near real-time simulations were evaluated and
made available to BoR to determine where NASA data can enhance
monitoring and forecasting of water supply and extreme events such as
flooding. Areas of interest for these projects include the
Truckee-Carson Rivers, Columbia River, and the Middle Rio Grande River
Basins. Our partnering scientists at the BoR Office in Denver have
created computer programs to incorporate and evaluate the first set of
1/8 degree NLDAS and 1km LIS model runs. They have helped evaluate many
of the forcing fields used in NLDAS and LIS, and they have also helped
to validate the snow water equivalent and soil temperature fields from
these runs. Results to date for DST enhancement have shown special
application of LIS evapotranspiration, soil moisture and precipitation
along with MODIS-derived snowpack and land cover information.

*Plans for FY 06:* The Evaluation report for RiverWare and AWARDS-ET
will be submitted in December, 2005. Validation and Verification reports
will be submitted by May, 2006, and the Benchmark reports will be
submitted by September, 2006.

*Detailed FY05 Accomplishments:*

-   Developed and integrated the latest MODIS version 4 (MODIS.v4) land
    products for use in the LSMs in LIS, which include land cover
    classification (MOD12), the land-water mask (MOD12), leaf area index
    (LAI; MOD15), land surface temperature (MOD11), and snow cover
    (MOD10).

-   Validated and evaluated the MODIS.v4 land cover classification and
    LAI products outside of LIS and compared to previous MODIS versions
    and AVHRR land cover and LAI products. The MODIS.v4 products were
    enhanced and demonstrated an improvement when validated against the
    other datasets and other independent studies.

-   The MODIS.v4 snow cover product was processed for the Columbia River
    Basin region and validated against SNOTEL and compared with the LSMs
    in LIS. MODIS snow cover was found to identify snow in grid pixels
    correctly when no cloud cover was detected, and has been determined
    to be suitable for use in several of the LSMs.

-   Soil class and parameter conditions used in the LSMs have been
    evaluated extensively. New soil classes (e.g., lava and exposed
    bedrock) are being incorporated into the models, since significant
    areas in the Western U.S. and in other parts of the world have these
    soil types and the classic sand-silt-clay fractions. Incorporating
    these new soil classes are improving the LSMs representation of the
    river basins' soil conditions and therefore runoff, baseflow, and
    other moisture variables.

> \- The Water Management program provided funding to the Univ. of Idaho
> to use MODIS surface temperature data to update the ET transfer
> coefficients used by BoR in the modified Penman Monteith ET approach
> for the Middle Rio Grande in support of the AWARDS ET-Toolbox. The
> current transfer coefficients are out of date and also are under
> optimal conditions in comparison to current conditions having recent
> water stress (e.g., drought and salinity). This work has resulted in
> quality control and correction of the MODIS Land Surface Temperature
> Product. These analyses have been done to insure the integrity of the
> final ET product and to increase Reclamation familiarity with quality
> and accuracy. Differences between the MODIS Terra and Aqua satellite
> platforms, when averaged over areas on the scale of 20 x 20 km average
> about -6 percent to +12 percent to Landsat-derived results for
> irrigated areas. These differences are considered acceptable. Current
> work is comparing ET over 4 km x 4 km areas, which represent the grid
> cell size in AWARDS.

-   The Water Management program also provided funding to the Univ.
    Nevada, Desert Research Institute (DRI), to customize NASA data into
    BoR DSTs RiverWare (including sub-models PRMS and MMS) and AWARDS
    ET-Toolbox. Current work to date is emphasizing the use of MODIS
    snow data (fractional cover and distributed snow), MODIS-derived ET,
    MODIS LAI and LIS water availability (soil moisture, snow water
    equivalent and ET) data.

-   V&V and Benchmark work in Rio Grande Basin is progressing. Two new
    eddy covariance flux towers for measuring in-situ
    evapotranspiration, energy and moisture flux terms have been
    installed in Albuquerque, NM, with the help of the Middle Rio Grande
    Conservancy District, Reclamation, and New Mexico Tech. These two
    towers will be used to help provide essential data to validate and
    benchmark LIS model runs and other relevant satellite-derived
    products with AWARDS ET-Toolbox for this region.

-   Since most datasets come in different projections, datums, and
    scales, we have applied to LIS optimal data merging techniques that
    have been developed to most appropriately align different parameter
    and satellite datasets for use in land surface models. The result is
    that we are able now to remove existing artifacts in datasets based
    on its previous format and projection and blend it the other
    datasets needed for the LSMs for DST usage.

***Progress on EPA BASINS***

*Background:* Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint
Sources (BASINS) is a GIS-based environmental analysis system developed
by EPA. It incorporates several watershed models, allowing users to
assess water quality from point and nonpoint sources. The watershed
simulation models require typical input data on soils, land use,
topography and meteorology. EPA operates BASINS to track and assess
water quality, by computing the maximum amount of pollution that a water
body is allowed to hold, known as Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs).
These TMDLs are a standard measure in water pollution control and
assessment. The primary BASINS submodel for evaluation is the Hydrologic
Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF). HSPF is a watershed scale model for
estimating instream concentrations resulting from point and nonpoint
sources. BASINS-HSPF requires multiple data inputs, and the
incorporation of several NASA science data products such as
precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and runoff could
enhance its performance. Primary NASA products for evaluation include
land cover and surface property products from MODIS and water
availability parameters from the NASA Land Information System (LIS). LIS
includes inputs from a variety of NASA satellite products, primarily
from MODIS, but also TRMM and AMSR.

*Accomplishments for FY05:* NASA, with Hunter College and UMCES are
evaluating primarily NASA LIS water availability products of
precipitation and evapotranspiration and MODIS Land Cover and Vegetation
Index products to improve water quality modeling for BASINS. The
strategy is to focus on HSPF, a continuous watershed model that produces
a streamflow hydrograph at specific points in a drainage basin. If NASA
is able to improve the predictive capability of HSPF, the BASINS DST
will produce more accurate streamflow and thus concentrations of
specific water quality parameters. The spatially distributed
precipitation product derived from LIS should produce improved forcing
when compared to the gauge only approach currently used by EPA. In
addition, work is ongoing to use LIS ET products to provide a spatially
distributed estimate that is superior to the current ET models used in
HSPF. Both Landsat and MODIS data were effectively shown to model the
export of nitrogen deposition in the watershed from the intensity of
defoliation via environmental disturbances. Using LIS-derived ET has
demonstrated improved water availability estimates thereby providing
enhanced stream flow for the Patuxent water shed. Analysis of spatial
precipitation data from LIS indicates complementary and significant
information to the current practice of using gauge data only for water
flow analysis (i.e., for pollutant concentration and volume transport).

*Plans for FY06:* The EPA is very interested in this application. The
Evaluation report for BASINS will be submitted in December, 2005. The
Benchmark report will be submitted by September, 2006. GSFC and
Mississippi State University are coordinating non-point source pollution
work using BASINS. GSFC also provided a support letter for a MSU
proposal with plans to conduct future collaborations and complementary
work together.

*Detailed FY05 Accomplishments:*

-   Worked on the verification of the LIS Precipitation Products of the
    Patuxent and Northeast Branch Anacostia watersheds between
    Washington and Baltimore. Stream flow has been modeled using
    different precipitation datasets, then compared to stream flow gauge
    measurements. The baseline modeling exercise uses a single
    precipitation value over the entire watershed that comes from the
    existing BASINS rain gauge network. The same basin is then being
    modeled using LIS spatial precipitation values (i.e., multiple
    precipitation totals across the watershed), while keeping all other
    physical parameters consistent. Analysis of EPA surface gauge data
    corroborates other studies demonstrating that large spatial and
    temporal variation of precipitation can lead to significant errors
    in flow estimates, and bad flow estimates result in poor water
    quality load estimates.

> \- LIS Evapotranspiration (ET) was shown through work by Hunter
> College to provide significantly improved flow estimates for BASINS.
> Current work is towards using rigorous Parameter Estimation (PEST) to
> quantify and benchmark improved ET to BASINS.

-   In a project led by UMCES personnel (PI, P. Townsend transferred
    to U. Wisconsin), it was demonstrated that the use of MODIS Land
    Cover and Vegetation Index products along with Landsat data can lead
    to successful monitoring of water quality nutrients and sediments
    from ecosystem disturbances such as from logging and gypsy moth
    defoliation. Further work will be done to customize NASA products
    for improving BASINS water quality.

**ADDITIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS**

**Participation in UNESCO Hydrology for the Environment, Life, and
Policy (HELP)**

-   NASA and UMBC-Goddard Earth Science and Technology (GEST) Center,
    through support of the NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program and NASA
    Applied Sciences Program have coordinated for the past year the
    North America Region of "HELP". The United Nations Educational,
    Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO's) Hydrology for the
    Environment, Life, and Policy Program (HELP) was established as a
    means to bring water managers, decision makers, stakeholders,
    scientists, and academicians to the same table to determine needs
    and find solutions to water management issues from a "bottom-up"
    method. NASA support has been instrumental to HELP through numerous
    meetings and teleconferences. In FY 05, NASA provided a paper to the
    HELP-sponsored session at the ASCE-EWRI Watershed Management 2005
    Conference in Williamsburg, VA on July 20, 2005.

**Collaboration with the State Department**

-   Worked on the "Maghreb" (countries of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco)
    interagency effort to support possible water management activities
    at the request by the State Department. NASA helped coordinate an
    interagency study involving the US Geological Survey, the US
    Department of Agriculture, NOAA with the Department of State to
    identify possible water management related issues that could be
    addressed by the State Department's Science and Technology
    initiative.

-   NASA led a delegation of water resources specialists to evaluate
    specific water resources problems in the Maghreb. The results of the
    evaluation were written reports to the State Department, the Maghreb
    countries and each of the participating agencies. Evaluations
    included identification and prioritization of each countries water
    resource and water management needs.

-   Worked with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Center (NRCS)
    scientists on objectives of using NASA Soil Moisture and Snowpack
    Properties to provide improved DST use.

**Other Activities**

-   Participated in the Army Corp of Engineers (ACE) Climate Change
    Workshop in Nov. 2004. NASA/GSFC has had several preliminary
    discussions about using NASA data with ACE in possible future
    collaborations. Areas include using NASA 1-3 month precipitation and
    temperature predictions for their DST's and water availability from
    NASA satellite and modeling for their trafficability and reservoir
    related programs.

**TECHNICAL PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS AND POSTERS (FY05)**

Arsenault, K., P. Houser, S. Hunter, D. Frevert, S. Meyer, and D.
Matthews, 2005.  The use of land data assimilated products to improve
flood and drought risk analysis and forecasting in the Columbia River
Basin, poster presented at the 85th AMS Annual Meeting, January, San
Diego, CA.

Arsenault, K., A. Pinheiro, R. Stodt, D. Matthews, and P. Houser, 2005.
A

comparison of LDAS Land surface model evapotranspiration estimates

using satellite-derived products, poster presented at the USBR-Alliance
University Evapotranspiration Workshop, (February) 2005, Denver, CO.

Arsenault, K., S. Hunter, E. Hoylroyd, R. Stodt, and P. Houser, 2005.
Use of NASA Land Data Assimilated Products to Improve Flood and Drought
Risk Analysis and Forecasting for Water Resources Management in the
Columbia River Basin, paper presented at the NASA Solid Earth and
Natural Hazards PI Meeting, (May), USGS EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls,
SD.

Arsenault, K, 2005. Federal Water Data and Management Programs and
Policies: NASA Water Management Applications and Water Cycle Programs,
presented at the Western States Water Council Meeting, (July), Seattle,
WA.

Cosgrove, B. A., C. Alonge, and P.R. Houser, 2005. The 12km North
American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-E), GEWEX Meeting, Poster
Presentation, June.

Engman, E.T. Estimation of Hydrometeorological Variables with the Land
Data Assimilation System (LDAS), presentation at the Iowa-NASA-NSGIC
Data Integration Workshop, April 20, 2005, Ames, Iowa.

Engman, E.T., Invited to participate in the USDA-ARS "customer workshop"
to evaluate the progress and plans for the Water Quality and management
National Program. Denver, CO, June 7 & 8, 2005.

Engman, E.T., Validation of ET, a paper presented and prepared for the
proceedings of the Reclamation ET Workshop, sponsored by the Bureau of
Reclamation and the Alliance Universities, February 10, 2005, Ft Collins
CO

Engman, E., 2005. An Assessment of Water Resources Needs and
Capabilities in the MAGHREB Region: The Potential for Science and
Technology Exchange in the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), Trip
Report, Jan. 2005.

Eylander, J., C. Peters-Lidard, S. Kumar, 2005. The AFWA Next Generation
Land Data Assimilation System, BAMICO Technical Paper, p. 9.

de Goncalves, G.G., E. Burke, W. Shuttleworth, P. Houser, D. Toll, M.
Rodell and K. Arsenault, 2005. Towards a South American Land Data
Assimilation System (SALDAS): Aspects of Land Surface Model Spin-Up
Using the Simplified Simple Biosphere (SSIB), J. Geophys. Res.,
submitted, in review.

Huntington, J., D. Boyle, G. Lamorey, and D. Toll, 2005. Evaluation of a
Hydrologic Model Applied to the Walker River Basin, Nevada, Using a Long
Term Gridded Evapotranspiration Dataset. Bureau of Reclamation ET
Workshop: State-of-the-Art Review of Evapotranspiration (ET) Remote
Sensing Science and Technology (Februrary 8 - 10, Fort Collins,
Colorado).

Huntington, J., D. Boyle, G. Lamorey, S. Bassett, and D. Toll, 2005.
Toward Improving Streamflow Simulation in the Truckee River Basin Using
MODIS Fractional Snow Cover Information. Scheduled Poster for 2005 AGU
Fall Meeting.

Moran, S., C. Peters-Lidard, J. Watts, S. McElroy, 2005. *Estimating
soil moisture at the watershed scale with satellite-based radar and land
surface models, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing*,

Pasteris, P., D. Garen, R. Kelly, D. Toll, M. Rodell, K. Arsenault,
NASA-USDA Collaborative Program, Snow Project Plan Prospectus, NASA-USDA
Federal Agency Working Group Report, May 2005.

Pinheiro, A., K. Arsenault, P. Houser, D. Toll, S. Kumar, D. Matthews,
and R. Stodt, 2004. Improved evapotranspiration estimates to aid water
management practices in the Middle Rio Grande River Basin. Paper
presented at IGARSS Conference, September 2004, Anchorage, Alaska.

 \
Schaefer, G., T. Jackson, Mark Seyfried, S. Moran, X. Zhan, C.
Peters-Lidard, J. Triggs, D. Toll, NASA Soil Moisture Project Plan
Prospectus, NASA-USDA Federal Agency Working Group Report, April, 2005.

Stodt, R., D. Matthews, S. Hunter, A. Pinheiro, K. Arsenault, and P.
Houser, Improved water demand forecasting for water resources managers,
paper presented at the 85th AMS Annual Meeting, January 2005, San Diego,
CA.

Toll, D., X. Zhan, and C. Peters-Lidard, 2004. NASA Soil Moisture
Observations and Modeling, NASA-USDA FAS Project Review, Oct., College
Park, MD, E. Sheffner Review Coordinator, Technical Presentation.

Toll, D., J. Triggs, J. Nigro, K. Arsenault, E. Engman and A. Pinheiro,
2005. Improving Water Management Decision Support Systems Using NASA
Data Products, NASA-USDA 2^nd^ Applications Workshop (April), New
Orleans, Poster Presentation.\
 \
Toll, D., K. Arsenault, A. Pinheiro, P. Houser, C. Peters-Lidard, and S.
Kumar, 2005. Using the NASA Land Information System to Integrate Earth
Science Data for Water Resources Applications European Geophysical
Union, General Assembly (April), Vienna, Austria, Technical
Presentation.\
 \
Toll, D., K. Arsenault, C. Peters-Lidard, P. Houser, S. Kumar, E.
Engman, J. Nigro, and J. Triggs, 2005. NASA LIS Water Availability to
Support Reclamation ET Estimation, US Bureau of Reclamation/USDA/USGS
Evapotranspiration Workshop, Fort Collins, CO, (March), Technical
Presentation and Technical Paper, 6pp.

Toll, D., L.G. de Goncalves, C. Peters-Lidard, M. Rodell, P. Houser, J.
Entin, M. Montrose, and K. Arsenault, 2005. "NASA Earth Science for
Water Management, Capacity Building in Latin America", Earth
Observations in the Service of Water Management Workshop, Integrated
Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO and National Commission on Space
Activities of Argentina (CONAE), (October) Technical Presentation.

Toll, D., R. Eckman, and S. Habib, 2005. NASA Research and Applications
for Renewable Hydroelectric Energy Use, Renewable Energy Modeling
Series-Modeling Hydroelectric Energy Use, NREL Workshop, (May),
Washington, DC.

Townsend, P. A., K. N. Eshleman, and C. Welcker, 2004. Remote sensing of
gypsy moth defoliation to assess stream nitrate concentration.
*Ecological Applications* 74:504-516.

Triggs, J., -- HELP session coordinator, 2005. Managing Watersheds for
Human and Natural Impacts: Engineering, Ecological, and Economic
Challenges. ASCE-EWRI Watershed Management 2005 Conference (July),
Williamsburg, VA.

 

Triggs, J., 2005. UNESCO HELP (Hydrology for the Environment, Life, and
Policy) Fourth World Water Forum planning meeting. Paris, France. August
29, 2005. J. Triggs -- HELP North America Regional Coordinator.

 

Triggs, J., 2005. UNESCO HELP Southern Hemisphere Symposium -- First
Steering Committee. Paris, France. August 30-September 2, 2005.-- HELP
North America Regional Coordinator/Representative.

**New Work for FY 06**

**Three new proposals were selected:**

1.  National Drought Monitoring System for Drought Early Warning using
    Hydrologic and Ecologic Observations from NASA Satellite Data. PI:
    Dr. Son V. Nghiem

> The work will assimilate hydrologic and ecologic observations from
> NASA Earth satellite sensors, including the Advanced Microwave
> Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), the
> QuikSCAT/SeaWinds Scatterometer (QSCAT), and the Moderate Resolution
> Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), into the United States Drought
> Monitor (USDM), hosted by the National Drought Mitigation Center at
> the University of Nebraska. The investigators will apply a systematic
> approach using the systems engineering process of evaluation,
> verification/validation, and benchmarking to achieve major
> improvements in national drought monitoring and early warning
> capabilities.
>
> NASA satellite products to be evaluated and incorporated include soil
> moisture, precipitation water on land surface, and vegetation state.
> These products have the potential to significantly enhance three of
> the most important indices used in USDM. Moreover, improvements
> resulting from inclusion of NASA satellite observations, along with an
> expanded network of observations, will be critical to improving
> drought and water supply forecasts.

2.  Improving NOAA/NWS River Forecast Center Decision Support with NASA
    Satellite and Land Information System Products. PI: Dr. Pedro
    Restrepo

> The work will demonstrate improved accuracy in runoff, stream flow,
> and flood monitoring and simulation that result from the combination
> of NASA data and model infrastructure with operational National
> Weather Service River Forecasting System (NWS RFS) decision support
> tools. The goal is that the products developed by this CAN proposal
> will provide NOAA NWS hydrologists with a more accurate basis for
> decision-making and hydrologic warning product generation. The
> integrated NASA-NOAA system will be evaluated, verified, validated,
> and benchmarked in cooperation with personnel at the NOAA Office of
> Hydrologic Development in order to establish a beneficial, cost
> effective pathway for extending NASA Earth Science results to the NOAA
> /NWS analysis and forecast environment.
>
> NASA satellite product to be evaluated and incorporated include the
> MODIS cloud cover product (to improve potential evaporation estimates
> fro use in the NWSRFS hydrologic modeling environment), and the AMSR-E
> (for snow water equivalent observations). The NASA LIS will be
> integrated with the NWSRFS, including the Sacramento Soil Moisture
> Accounting (SAC-SMA) and SNOW-17 models.

3.  Improving water resources management in the western US through use
    of remote sensing data and seasonal climate forecasts. PI: Dennis
    Lettenmaier

> The University of Washington experimental west-wide seasonal
> hydrologic forecast system produces 6-12 month lead time hydrologic
> forecasts at approximately 100 forecast points in five major river
> basins within the western U.S. The system is an outgrowth of the North
> American LDAS (N-LDAS) project. The system is based on the University
> of Washington/Princeton University Variable Infiltration Capacity
> (VIC) macroscale hydrology model, driven by climate ensembles
> downscaled from the NCEP Seasonal Forecast Model (SFM), the NASA
> NSIPP1 global model, and an ensemble version of the CPC official
> seasonal outlooks (12 month lead time). This project will incorporate
> EOS remote sensing data, including MODIS snow cover extent, ET, and
> reservoir surface temperature, and AMSR-E snow water equivalent. In
> addition, it will incorporate NASA experimental seasonal climate
> forecasts produced by the GMAO model.