Estimation of the spatially distributed surface energy budget for AgriSAR 2006, part II : Integration of remote sensing and hydrologic modeling

In most hydrologic modeling studies, the hypothesis is made that an improvement in the modeled soil moisture leads to an improvement in the modeled surface energy balance. The objective of this paper is to assess whether this hypothesis is true. The study was performed over the winter wheat fields in the AgriSAR 2006 domain. Remotely sensed soil moisture values and latent heat fluxes were used, in combination with in situ observations. First, the land cover and saturated subsurface flow parameters were estimated using the in situ observations. A spatially distributed model simulation was then performed, for which the Brooks-Corey parameters were derived from a soil texture map, and of which…