Assimilation of Backscatter Observations into a Hydrological Model: A Case Study in Belgium Using ASCAT Data

We investigated the possibilities of improving hydrological simulations by assimilating radar backscatter observations from the advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) in the hydrological model SCHEME using a calibrated water cloud model (WCM) as an observation operator. The WCM simulates backscatter based on soil moisture and vegetation data and can therefore be used to generate observation predictions for data assimilation. The study was conducted over two Belgian catchments with different hydrological regimes: the Demer and the Ourthe catchment. The main differences between the two catchments can be... Mehr ...