One-dimensional soil temperature simulation with Common Land Model by assimilating in situ observations and MODIS LST with the ensemble particle filter

Soil temperature plays an important role in hydrology, agriculture, and meteorology. In order to improve the accuracy of soil temperature simulation, a soil temperature data assimilation system was developed based on the Ensemble Particle Filter (EnPF) and the Common Land Model (CLM), and then applied in the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in Arizona, United States. Surface soil temperature in situ observations and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Land Surface Temperature (MODIS LST) data were assimilated into the system. In this study, four different assimilation experiments were conducted: (1) assimilating in situ observations of instantaneous surface soil temperature each hour, (2) assimilating in situ observations of instantaneous surface soil temperature once per day, (3) assimilating verified MODIS LST once per day, and (4) assimilating original MODIS LST once per day. These four experiments reflect a transition from high-quality and more frequent in situ observations to lower quality and less frequent remote sensing data in the data assimilation system. The results from these four experiments show that the assimilated results are better than the simulated results without assimilation at all layers except the bottom layer, while the superiority gradually diminishes as the quality and frequency of the observations decrease. This demonstrates that remote sensing data can be assimilated using the ensemble particle filter in poorly gauged catchments to obtain highly accurate soil variables (e.g., soil moisture, soil temperature). Meanwhile, the results also demonstrate that the ensemble particle filter is effective in assimilating soil temperature observations to improve simulations, but the performance of the data assimilation method is affected by the frequency of assimilation and the quality of the input data.