Using Satellite Data and Fully Coupled Regional Hydrologic Ecological and Atmospheric Models to Study Complex Coastal Environmental Processes
Zong-Liang
Yang, University of Texas at Austin, liang@mail.utexas.edu
Guo-Yue
Niu, University of Texas at Austin, niu@geo.utexas.edu
(Presenting)
David
Maidment, University of Texas at Austin, maidment@mail.utexas.edu
Paul
Montagna, University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute, paul.montagna@tamucc.edu
James
McClelland, University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute, jimm@utmsi.utexas.edu
Hongjie
Xie, University of Texas at San Antonio, hongjie.xie@utsa.edu
An integrated interdisciplinary study of complex coastal environmental processes has been funded by NASA interdisciplinary Science Program from 2007 to 2010. The final results will be a suite of models that link the upland and estuarine ecosystems into a single model framework that will allow simulating, reproducing, and projecting natural and anthropogenic impacts in a comprehensive matter. Progresses have been made in different components during the first year of the project: 1) a 3D hydrologically-enhanced land surface distributed model (Noah-D), which represents the spatial redistribution of overland flow and shallow saturated subsurface soil moisture, has been adopted as an component of this integrated model system and exhibited good performance after transferring to a new supercomputer platform - Lonestar at TACC 2) a physically-based multivariate-regression algorithm was developed to downscale NEXRAD precipitation from 4km to 1km horizontal resolution to calibrate and validate the Noah-d at Guadalupe / San Antonio River Basin 3) a GIS based mesoscale river routing model was developed and calibrated against gauge station stream flow measurements in France river basins 4) archived and newly collected data on the river chemistry has been used to optimize regression equations to estimate river flow nutrient export to coastal waters and 5) field sampling has been performed quarterly since July 2007 for calibrating an ecological model used to assess changes in estuarine productivity. The first year progresses have provided a sound basis for future integrative studies.
NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Active Awards Represented by this Poster: