# Analyzing the Characteristics of Soil Moisture Using GLDAS Data: A Case Study in Eastern China
## 3 Results and Discussion
### The Relationship between Precipitation, Temperature and Soil Moisture
This shows that, in addition to the second layer, the other three layers' temperature has a greater impact the deeper the soil layer. The above analysis demonstrates that the evolution characteristics of soil moisture are influenced by temperature and precipitation. Specifically, the change of precipitation affects the surface soil, but the temperature has a more pronounced effect on deep soil. With their hot, rainy summers and cold, dry winters, the large temperature differences can be ascribed to the monsoon in eastern China. As a result, there is an evident difference in temperature and precipitation in different seasons. Figure 11 shows the correlation coefficient of each seasonal precipitation, temperature, and the levels of precipitation and temperature in relation to soil moisture in different seasons for the four layers (0-10 cm, 10-40 cm, 40-100 cm, and 100-200 cm) of soil moisture from 1961 to 2011. From the correlation coefficient of precipitation and soil moisture, we find that precipitation and soil moisture in different depths have a positive correlation in spring, summer and autumn, but it is negative in winter. Correlation coefficients in summer and winter fall roughly in line with the decreasing of soil, while the correlation coefficient is close to 1 in spring and winter, which means precipitation and soil moisture are highly correlated. It is only in the 10-40 cm layer that the correlation coefficient decreases slightly in spring. Combined with the correlation coefficient of temperature and soil moisture, temperature is positively associated with different depths of soil moisture from spring to autumn. Temperature in winter is negatively correlated with soil layers at 0-10 cm, 40-100 cm, and 100-200 cm, with the exception being 10-40 cm. The correlation coefficient in spring, summer and winter drop with the decreasing of soil, while the correlation coefficient in autumn is close to 1, which means temperature  
Figure 10: The relationship of annual average temperature anomaly (red line) and the layers of soil moisture (blue line) from 1961 to 2011 in eastern China: (**a**) 0–10 cm; (**b**) 10–40 cm; (**c**) 40–100 cm; (**d**) 100–200 cm. and soil moisture are highly correlated. The correlation coefficients in the 40-100 cm layer of soil are different in spring and summer, as the correlation coefficient of spring and summer soil moisture is close to 1. This shows that moisture in the spring correlated highly in the 40-100 cm layer of soil. But the correlation coefficient of summer and soil moisture at the 10-40 cm layer of soil decreased. These results show that precipitation, temperature, and soil moisture have a high degree of correlation in the autumn, but this is not as significant in winter. As temperature and precipitation are positively correlated with different depths of soil in spring, summer, and autumn, and China is located in the east of East Asia and the Pacific west bank, which belongs to the humid and sub-humid regions due to a short water cycle, the increase of temperature and evaporation turns more water into rainfall.