NASA/TM–2014-104606 / Vol. 35

December 2014

Rolf H. Reichle and Qing Liu

National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration 

Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

Technical Report Series on Global Modeling and Data Assimilation, 

Volume 35

Randal D. Koster, Editor 

Observation-Corrected Precipitation Estimates in GEOS-5
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National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration 

Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

NASA/TM–2014-104606 / Vol. 35

December 2014

Rolf H. Reichle 

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

Qing Liu 

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 

Technical Report Series on Global Modeling and Data Assimilation, 

Volume 35

Randal D. Koster, Editor

Observation-Corrected Precipitation Estimates in GEOS-5
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Abstract

Several GEOS-5 applications, including the GEOS-5 seasonal forecasting system and the 

MERRA-Land data product, rely on global precipitation data that have been corrected with 

satellite and/or gauge-based precipitation observations. This document describes the 

methodology used to generate the corrected precipitation estimates and their use in GEOS-5

applications. The corrected precipitation estimates are derived by disaggregating publicly 

available, observationally based, global precipitation products from daily or pentad totals to 

hourly accumulations using background precipitation estimates from the GEOS-5 atmospheric 

data assimilation system. Depending on the specific combination of the observational 

precipitation product and the GEOS-5 background estimates, the observational product may also 

be downscaled in space. The resulting corrected precipitation data product is at the finer 

temporal and spatial resolution of the GEOS-5 background and matches the observed 

precipitation at the coarser scale of the observational product, separately for each day (or pentad) 

and each grid cell. 

1 
2 
Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Input Data Products 5

2.1 Observationally Based Precipitation Data Products 5

2.1.1 Precipitation Data Products for Global Land and Ocean 5

2.1.2 Precipitation Data Products for Global Land 6

2.2 Background GEOS-5 Data Products 7

3. Corrected Precipitation Data for GEOS-5 Applications 9

3.1 Precipitation Correction Methods 12

3.1.1 Method A 12

3.1.2 Method B 13

3.1.3 Option M: Add “Missing” Precipitation 14

3.1.4 Option T: High-latitude Tapering 14

3.1.5 Option X: Exclude Africa from Precipitation Corrections 14

3.2 Use of Corrected Precipitation in GEOS-5 Applications 15

Acknowledgments 16

References 17

3 
4 
1. Introduction

Since the release in 2011 of the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and 

Applications (MERRA; Rienecker et al. 2011, Lucchesi 2012), observation-corrected 

precipitation estimates have been used in a variety of applications of the Goddard Earth 

Observing System Model, version 5 (GEOS-5). Such applications include the GEOS-5 seasonal 

forecasting system (Ham et al. 2014), the MERRA-Land data product (Reichle et al. 2011, 

Reichle 2012), and the MERRA Aerosol reanalysis (MERRAero; Da Silva et al. 2011, 2012).

Precipitation corrections are also used in the forthcoming MERRA-2 data product and in the 

planned SMAP L4_SM data product (Entekhabi et al. 2014, Reichle et al. 2014a,b).

The present document describes the generation and use of the observation-corrected precipitation 

estimates. These estimates are derived by disaggregating publicly available, observationally 

based, global precipitation products from daily (or pentad) totals to hourly accumulations using 

precipitation estimates from the GEOS-5 atmospheric data assimilation system. Depending on 

the specific combination of the observational precipitation product and the GEOS-5 background 

estimates, the observational product may also be downscaled in space.

The observationally based precipitation data products used here are from the Global Precipitation 

Climatology (GPCP) project and the NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC). These data 

products combine observations from a variety of satellites and/or gauges into global fields. In 

this document, we refer to these 

products simply as “observations”.

The GEOS-5 data products that are 

used as background in the 

precipitation corrections process

include MERRA, the GEOS-5

Forward Processing (FP) system 

and the GEOS-5 Forward 

Processing system for Instrument 

Teams (FP-IT).

Figure 1 shows a schematic of the 

key elements of the precipitation 

corrections algorithm for a 

representative configuration. In 

the graphic, the hourly GEOS-5

background is on a 1⁄4o grid and the Figure 1: Schematic of the precipitation correction algorithm for a 

representative configuration.

5 
observed precipitation is available in daily totals on a 1⁄2o grid. First, the GEOS-5 background 

precipitation is aggregated from its finer spatial and temporal scales to the coarser scales of the 

observations. Second, correction factors are computed at the coarser scale of the observations,

separately for each day and each grid cell. Finally, these correction factors are applied to the 

GEOS-5 background at its native resolution. The result is a corrected GEOS-5 precipitation data 

product at the finer temporal and spatial resolution of the GEOS-5 background that matches the 

observed precipitation at the coarser scale, separately for each day and each grid cell. 

This document is structured as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the observational and

GEOS-5 data products that are used in the precipitation corrections. Section 3 offers a detailed 

discussion of the precipitation corrections algorithm. It also summarizes the corrected GEOS-5

precipitation products and their use in a variety of GEOS-5 applications.

6 
2. Input Data Products

2.1 Observationally Based Precipitation Data Products

This section provides details about the observational precipitation data products on which the 

precipitation corrections are based. Key attributes are listed in Table 1 and discussed below. 

Additional information can be found in the references.

Data Product Region Period Time Step Grid Observations

GPCPv2.1 pentad Global 1979 – Sep 2009 Pentad 2.5 deg Satellites, Gauges

CMAP Global 1979 – present Pentad 2.5 deg Satellites, Gauges

CPCU Global land 1979 – present Daily 0.5 deg Gauges

Table 1: Overview of observational precipitation data products. “Global land” includes large lakes and land areas 

that are permanently frozen.

2.1.1 Precipitation Data Products for Global Land and Ocean

The CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) product and the GPCP version 2.1 pentad

product provide global estimates of total precipitation for each pentad (5-day period) at 2.5 

degree spatial resolution. Both products are based on gauge observations and satellite estimates

(Xie et al. 2007; Adler et al. 2003). 

The CMAP product is available from the NOAA-ESRL Physical Sciences Division: 

ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/precip/cmap/. The dataset spans 1979-present with a

latency of about 6 days. The CMAP version “v0905” standard product was used for the period 

1979-2006 and the CMAP version “v0011” “real-time” (“RT”) product is used for the period 

2007-present.

The GPCP version 2.1 pentad product is a temporal disaggregation of the GPCP version 2.1 

monthly product using the CMAP pentad product from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center. 

The GPCPv2.1 pentad product was provided by Pingping Xie from NOAA CPC for the period of 

January 1979 to August 2009. The monthly totals of the GPCPv2.1 pentad product are designed 

to match those of the GPCPv2.1 monthly product, separately for each month in the time series 

and for each grid cell.

The CMAP and GPCPv2.1 pentad products have the same spatial and temporal resolution: 2.5 

degree latitude by 2.5 degree longitude global (144x72) with grid cell centers at 88.75S, 1.25E 

7 
(bottom left corner) and 88.75N, 358.75E (top right corner). The datasets consist of 73 pentads 

per year, with the first pentad covering 1 January to 5 January. The 12th pentad always covers 25 

February to 1 March, that is, in a leap year the 12th pentad includes 6 days.

To ensure consistency between the precipitation corrections based on CMAP and GPCPv2.1 data 

to the extent possible we created a rescaled version of the CMAP pentad data product

(“CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim”) that matches the 1979-2008 monthly climatology of the GPCPv2.1 

pentad product as follows:

(i) For the purpose of computing the climatologies in the subsequent step, missing data points 

in CMAP or GPCPv2.1 for 1979-2008 are masked out in both datasets. 

(ii) For each grid cell and each of the 73 pentads, compute the long-term mean value of the 30-

year data record (separately for CMAP and GPCPv2.1).

(iii) For each grid cell, smooth the CMAP and GPCPv2.1 pentad climatologies by computing 

the 5-pentad mean climatology (that is, for each pentad, average the current pentad and the 

two pentads immediately before and after the current pentad).

(iv) For each grid cell and each of the 73 pentads of the year, compute a climatological 

rescaling factor by dividing the smoothed GPCPv2.1 climatology by the smoothed CMAP 

climatology. The climatological rescaling factor is limited to [0.1,10] and is set to 1 (no 

rescaling) if the (non-smoothed) climatological value of CMAP or GPCPv2.1 is less than 

1e-4 mm/d.

(v) Rescale the CMAP precipitation by multiplying the CMAP estimate for a given pentad and 

grid cell with the corresponding climatological rescaling factor. The resulting dataset is 

referred to as “CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim”.

Note that this rescaling of the CMAP data product is just a pre-processing step that merges two 

observationally based products and should not be confused with the precipitation correction 

methods that merge an observationally based product with a model-based background (as 

detailed section 3.1).

2.1.2 Precipitation Data Products for Global Land

The CPC Unified Gauge-Based Analysis of Global Daily Precipitation (CPCU) provides 

estimates of daily total precipitation over global land areas. The data are on a 0.5 degree grid 

with grid cell centers at 89.75S, 0.25E (bottom left corner) and 89.75N, 359.75E (top right 

8 
corner) and are available for the period from 1979 to present from: 

ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/precip/CPC_UNI_PRCP/GAUGE_GLB/.

The exact definition of the 24-hour time period that contributes to the daily CPCU values varies 

across the global grid. An ancillary data file provides this information in the form of End of Day 

(EOD) time (which is constant for the time period of the data record). Furthermore, the CPCU 

data product includes information about the spatial density of the precipitation gauges that were

used in the construction of each estimate.

The CPCU “V1.0” product was used for the period 1979-2005 and the CPCU “real-time” (“RT”) 

is used for the period 2006-present.

2.2 Background GEOS-5 Data Products

This section provides a brief overview of the GEOS-5 data products that are used as background 

estimates for the precipitation corrections. Key attributes are listed in Table 2 and discussed 

below. Additional details about GEOS-5 products can be found at 

http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/products.

Data Product Period Grid Version

MERRA 01/01/1979 – present 0.50 deg by 0.6667 deg GEOS-5.2.0

FP-IT (and RP-IT) 01/01/2000 – present 0.50 deg by 0.6250 deg GEOS-5.9.1

FP (incl. G5.7.2) 08/18/2011 – present 0.25 deg by 0.3125 deg variable

Table 2: Overview of GEOS-5 background data products. All products provide hourly, global precipitation 

estimates.

MERRA provides global, hourly precipitation data from 1979 to present. The spatial resolution 

is 0.5 degree latitude by 2/3 degree longitude (540x361) with grid cell centers at 90S, 180W 

(bottom left corner) and 90N, 179.333E (top right corner). MERRA data are available for 

internal use at the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) with a latency of 

approximately 3 weeks and are published at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and 

Information Services Center (DISC) with a latency of approximately 6 weeks.

Hourly precipitation data are also available from the GEOS-5 Forward Processing (FP) system 

from 18 August 2011 to present in near-real time (Table 2; Lucchesi 2011, Lucchesi 2013b).

Unlike reanalysis data, the data from the FP system are generated with evolving versions of the 

GEOS-5 system: GEOS-5.7.2 (08/01/2011 – 06/11/2013), GEOS-5.11.0 (06/11/2013 –

9 
08/20/2014), and GEOS-5.13.0 (since 08/20/2014). Since its inception, the output from the FP 

system has been available on a global grid with a 1/4 degree spacing in latitude and a 5/16 degree

spacing in longitude (1152x721), with grid cell centers at 90S, 180W (bottom left corner) and 

90N, 179.6875E (top right corner). Plans for future upgrades of the FP data stream include an 

increase in resolution. 

Moreover, hourly precipitation data are available from the GEOS-5 Forward Processing for 

Instrument Teams (FP-IT; Lucchesi 2013a) system and its associated reprocessing (RP-IT) 

streams. While the version of the GEOS-5 system that is used to generate this data stream is not 

strictly frozen, the objective is to limit the upgrades to the system and consult with NASA 

instrument teams prior to any version changes. To date, only GEOS-5.9.1 has been used to 

generate the FP-IT and associated RP-IT streams.

Including reprocessing streams, FP-IT data are available from 2000 to present and are updated in 

near-real time. The data are available on a global grid with a 1/2 degree latitude spacing and a 

5/8 degree longitude spacing (576x361), with grid cell centers at 90S, 180W (bottom left corner) 

and 90N, 179.375E (top right corner).

The MERRA, FP, and FP-IT data streams include three separate precipitation fields in the 

hourly, time-average, 2d “flx” (flux) file Collection: 

x PRECTOT (total precipitation flux at the surface = total rainfall + total snowfall), 

x PRECCON (total convective precipitation flux at the surface = convective rainfall +

convective snowfall), and 

x PRECSNO (total snowfall flux at the surface). 

Note that the sum of PRECCON and PRECSNO is not equal to PRECTOT. Moreover, the FP

and FP-IT data streams additionally include three separate precipitation fields in the hourly, 

time-average, 2d “lfo” (land forcing) file Collection:

x PRECCU (liquid precipitation flux from convection at the surface),

x PRECLS (liquid precipitation flux from large scale processes at the surface), and

x PRECSNO (frozen precipitation flux at the surface). 

These latter three fields sum up to the total precipitation flux at the surface (PRECTOT).

10 
3. Corrected Precipitation Data for GEOS-5 Applications

Table 3 provides an overview of the observational and GEOS-5 background data products used 

to generate the corrected precipitation datasets for various GEOS-5 applications. The methods 

used to generate the corrected precipitation data are discussed in detail in section 3.1. Additional 

remarks on some of the applications are given in section 3.2.

Application Region Period Observations Background Method

GEOS-5

Seasonal 

Forecast 

Initialization 

(V2 in Ham et 

al. 2014)

Global

1979 – Aug 2009 GPCPv2.1 MERRA A

Sep 2009 – present CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim MERRA A

[after MERRA ends] CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim FP-IT A

Most recent 2-4 weeks CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim FP A

MERRAero Global Jul 2002 – present CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim MERRA A

MERRA-Land Global 

land 1979 – present CPCU MERRA BM

SMAP Nature 

Run v3

Global 

land

2000 – 2013 CPCU FP-IT BMTX

2014 – present CPCU FP AMTX

SMAP L4_SM 

(initial version)

Global 

land 2015 – present CPCU FP AMTX

MERRA-2

Global 

ocean, 

Africa

1979 – Sep 2009 GPCPv2.1 MERRA A

Sep 2009 – present CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim MERRA A

[after MERRA ends] CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim FP-IT A

Global 

land 

(excl. 

Africa)

1979 – present CPCU MERRA BM

[after MERRA ends] CPCU FP-IT BM

Table 3: Overview of precipitation corrections in GEOS-5 applications and their use of observations (section 2.1), 

GEOS-5 background data (section 2.2) and correction methods (section 3.1). The final column identifies the two 

main correction methods by letter (A and B). Additionally, T implies latitude tapering, X implies that Africa is 

excluded from corrections, and M implies that observed precipitation that is “missing” in the GEOS-5 background is 

11 
added in the correction process. See section 3.1 for details. “Global land” includes large lakes and land areas that 

are permanently frozen. The SMAP Nature Run v3 is an internal data product of the SMAP project.

Note that the final MERRA-Land data product that is available from the GES DISC (Reichle et 

al. 2012) uses corrected precipitation based on the CPCU data product as shown in Table 3. The 

preliminary version of the MERRA-Land data product that is discussed in Reichle et al. (2011)

used corrected precipitation based on the GPCPv2.1 and CMAP/GPCPv2.1-clim data products.

3.1 Precipitation Correction Methods

This section describes the methods used for correcting the model-based background estimates 

with the observationally based precipitation data products. 

There are two main methods, A and B, that are very similar. The key elements of the algorithm 

are shown in the schematic of Figure 1. In a nutshell, the GEOS-5 background estimates are 

aggregated to the time step and (if applicable) the spatial grid for which the observations are 

available. Correction factors are then derived, separately for each (observational) time step and 

grid cell, such that the corrected precipitation matches the observed precipitation as closely as 

possible for each (observational) time step and grid cell. The two methods differ only in one 

aspect – in method A, the correction factors are computed on the grid of the observations 

whereas in method B, the correction factors are computed on the grid of the background GEOS-5

data. Additional algorithmic steps address latitude-dependent and location-dependent correction 

procedures (options T and X) as well as the handling of the special case where precipitation was 

observed but is absent from the GEOS-5 background estimates (option M). 

3.1.1 Method A

Separately for each day or pentad for which precipitation observations are available, the GEOS-5

background precipitation estimates are corrected as follows:

(i) Aggregate the hourly GEOS-5 background total precipitation (PRECTOT) to the pentad (or 

daily) accumulation period of the observations. For corrections using the CPCU product, 

this involves identifying for each grid cell the 24-hour period that contributes to the given 

“day” according to the CPCU EOD ancillary information and assigning the EOD times to 

the grid of the GEOS background data using the nearest neighbor method. (The latter step 

is the same for each day of CPCU data.)

12 
(ii) Aggregate/interpolate the pentad (or daily) accumulations of the GEOS-5 background 

precipitation to the spatial grid of the observationally based product. The spatial 

aggregation/interpolation is mass conservative and carried out via a fine resolution 

exchange grid that nests into the original grid as well as into the target grid. After 

identifying the coarsest possible exchange grid with the desired nesting property, the 

precipitation is first remapped from the original grid to the exchange grid. Thereafter, the 

precipitation is aggregated to the target grid by simple averaging from the exchange grid to 

the target grid. 

(iii) For each grid cell of the observational product, compute a correction factor by dividing the 

observational precipitation estimate by the corresponding GEOS-5 background estimate of 

total precipitation (PRECTOT). (Note that this is done separately for each grid cell and 

each pentad or day.) If the GEOS-5 background value is zero and/or observational estimate 

is a no-data-value, the correction factor is set to 1 (that is, no correction). 

(iv) Interpolate the gridded correction factors to the native GEOS-5 background grid using the 

approach described in step (ii).

(v) For each grid cell of the native GEOS-5 background grid, multiply the GEOS-5

background hourly values of total precipitation (PRECTOT) with the interpolated 

correction factor for that grid cell. Apply the same multiplication to all available 

precipitation components, including total convective precipitation (PRECCON), total 

snowfall (PRECSNO), etc.

3.1.2 Method B

This method is used when the grid spacing of the observations is similar to that of the GEOS-5

background data, which occurs typically when the 0.5 degree CPCU observations are used with 

“one-half degree” GEOS-5 background data from MERRA or FP-IT. For each day of CPCU 

data, the correction steps are as follows:

(i) Same as step (i) of method A (section 3.1.1).

(ii) Interpolate the daily observations to the GEOS-5 background grid using the mass 

conservative approach described in step (ii) of method A.

(iii) Same as step (iii) of method A except that for method B correction factors are computed on 

the grid of the GEOS-5 background data.

13 
(iv) Does not apply in method B.

(v) Same as step (v) of method A.

3.1.3 Option M: Add “Missing” Precipitation

If for a given GEOS-5 background grid cell the correction factor was set to 1 because the GEOS5 background accumulated (pentad or daily) precipitation was zero but the observational estimate 

was non-zero, the observed precipitation that is “missing” from the GEOS-5 background is 

added evenly to the three corrected GEOS-5 hourly estimates of total precipitation (PRECTOT) 

between midnight and 3am local time. Local nighttime is chosen to avoid inconsistencies with 

GEOS-5 background estimates of downward radiation at the surface. If for a given hour between 

midnight and 3am local time the GEOS-5 background air temperature at the lowest model level 

(TLML, which is also in the “flx” data Collection) is below 273.15 K, the precipitation is 

designated as snowfall and also added to PRECSNO. 

3.1.4 Option T: High-latitude Tapering

At high latitudes the precipitation gauge network is extremely sparse and measuring (often solid) 

precipitation is in any case difficult. Therefore, the quality of gauge-based observational 

products at high latitudes is typically poor. In some cases the precipitation corrections are 

therefore tapered with latitude such that at low latitudes the observations corrections are applied 

as usual but at high latitudes the “corrected” precipitation is identical to the GEOS-5 background 

data. Specifically, after step (iv) of methods A and B (sections 3.1.1 and 3.1.2) adjusted 

(tapered) correction factors c’ are computed from the original correction factors c as follows:

c’ = w * c + (1 – w) * 1 (1)

where w is a latitude-dependent weight such that w=1 for abs(latitude)ч42.5°, w=0 for 

abs(latitude)ш62.5°, and 0<w<1 in between (linearly interpolated). The tapered correction 

factors c’ are then used in step (v). 

3.1.5 Option X: Exclude Africa from Precipitation Corrections

In Africa the precipitation gauge network is extremely sparse and the quality of gauge-based 

observational products is therefore poor. In some cases the precipitation corrections are 

14 
therefore not applied in Africa. Formally, this can be achieved by resetting the corrections factor 

to 1 prior to step (v) in methods A and B above. 

3.2 Use of Corrected Precipitation in GEOS-5 Applications

The corrected precipitation datasets of Table 3 are used in land-only GEOS-5 applications as 

well as in coupled land-atmosphere models. Land-only applications include, for example, 

MERRA-Land and the SMAP L4_SM data product. In this case, the precipitation forcing is 

applied directly as part of the land surface forcing. For the SMAP application, the land is thus 

forced with precipitation from the background FP system at high latitudes and over Africa, with 

the CPCU-corrected precipitation over low latitudes, and with a linear combination of the 

background and observed precipitation between 42.5o and 62.5o latitude (section 3.1).

Applications of the corrected precipitation datasets with the Atmospheric General Circulation 

Model (AGCM) include MERRA-2 and the generation of the initial conditions for the GEOS-5

seasonal forecast system. In this case the corrected precipitation data are read into the coupled

modeling system and then used to adjust the model-generated precipitation from the atmospheric 

moist physics module of the AGCM. This merger includes the latitude-dependent tapering of 

the corrected precipitation (section 3.1.4) within the AGCM, that is, the land surface in MERRA2 is forced with its own, model-generated precipitation at high latitudes, with the corrected 

precipitation data over low latitudes, and with a combination of the two between 42.5o and 62.5o 

latitude. Note that atmospheric water and energy prognostic variables associated with the 

creation of precipitation are not directly modified but can be indirectly modified through 

subsequent feedback with the land surface. Furthermore, in the case of MERRA-2 the corrected 

precipitation is based on the 2.5 degree, pentad CMAP product over Africa and on the 0.5 

degree, daily CPCU product over low-latitude land elsewhere. Moreover, in MERRA-2 as well 

as the MERRA-driven aerosol reanalysis (MERRAero) the corrected precipitation data are also 

used to modulate aerosol wet removal processes over land and ocean.

Initial conditions for the GEOS-5 seasonal forecasting system are needed routinely and close to 

real time (http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/products/climateforecasts/GEOS5/DESC/). The 

system that generates the initial conditions thus uses corrected precipitation based on the 

MERRA background as close to real time as MERRA is available and then fills in the most 

recent weeks with corrected precipitation based on the FP background. To generate the

subsequent set of initial conditions, the system is rewound to the point in time at which corrected 

precipitation based on the MERRA background ended and is then run forward with newly 

available corrected precipitation based on the MERRA background for as long as possible. In 

15 
the long-term, the initial conditions are therefore always based on corrected precipitation using 

the MERRA background for as long as possible. 

At the time of writing, the production of MERRA-2 is underway. Its most recent stream will 

overtake that of MERRA soon. Moreover, it is expected that MERRA (and MERRA-Land) will 

end within the next year or so. Once MERRA ends, the corrected precipitation that will be used 

for MERRA-2 and the GEOS-5 seasonal forecasting system will use the FP-IT data as 

background instead of MERRA data.

Finally, the version of the GEOS-5 land-only or coupled modeling system determines the triplet 

of corrected precipitation variables that is read into the system (section 2.2). Currently, GEOS-5

applications that use corrected precipitation data typically read PRECTOT, PRECCON, and 

PRECSNO. Only the SMAP applications read PRECCU, PRECLS, and PRECSNO.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Randy Koster and Arlindo da Silva for helpful discussions and edits. 

This work was supported by the NASA Modeling, Prediction, and Analysis (MAP) program and 

the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) project. Computing for the generation of 

GEOS-5 data products is supported by the NASA High End Computing Program.

16 
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