Soil moisture initialization for climate prediction: Characterization of model and observation errors

The model error in the catchment-based land surface model (CLSM) used by NASA Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP) and the observation error of the near surface soil moisture from Scanning Multifrequency Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data were characterized by comparing them with measurements of soil moisture collected in Russia, Mongolia, and China. It was found that in wet climate areas, such as the east coast of China and western Russia, the catchment model has a wet bias. The satellite observation error was large in wet and densely-vegetated regions and small in dry region. This indicated that if the correct model error and observation error are used, data assimilation will give better soil moisture in China and Russia.