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Please note that this session was withdrawn and is no longer available in the respective programme. This withdrawal might have been the result of a merge with another session.

HS6.6

Reducing uncertainties in modelling hydro-meteorological processes using earth observations
Convener: Rogier Van der Velde  | Co-Conveners: Carsten Montzka , Chiara Corbari 

Earth observations have demonstrated to be capable of capturing spatially organized information on key hydro-meteorological variables related to the land surface (e.g. soil moisture, evapotranspiration, temperature), atmosphere (e.g. rainfall) and cryosphere (e.g. snow albedo, snow water equivalent). The initiation of various national and international space as well as science programmes has ensured a further operationalization of the space infrastructure. The European example is the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. These and other initiatives are expected to generate a wealth of data relevant for the hydro-meteorological community.
The availability of earth observations alone is, however, in many cases not sufficient for operational integrated water resources management because the remote sensors typically do not observe the exact same variable that is of interest and at the spatial resolution suitable to correctly catch the process. Integration of earth observations with distributed physically process-based models is an important strategy for deriving of value added products. In this context, the earth observations as such are employed for reducing uncertainties in the modelling of processes. An improvement in the reliability of model simulations can be achieved by updating the simulated state with the observed information via a comprehensive data assimilation scheme. On the other hand, earth observations can also contribute to reliability of model simulations by providing information on the model parameters either directly or via model inversion.
This session solicits for contributions that demonstrate improved simulation of hydro-meteorological processes by using earth observations either for (i) state updating or (ii) providing model parameters or (iii) model calibration. The focus is specifically on basin scale applications.