Articles | Volume 24, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1587-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1587-2020
Research article
 | 
03 Apr 2020
Research article |  | 03 Apr 2020

Evaluation of soil moisture from CCAM-CABLE simulation, satellite-based models estimates and satellite observations: a case study of Skukuza and Malopeni flux towers

Floyd Vukosi Khosa, Mohau Jacob Mateyisi, Martina Reynita van der Merwe, Gregor Timothy Feig, Francois Alwyn Engelbrecht, and Michael John Savage

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Cited articles

Albergel, C., de Rosnay, P., Gruhier, C., Munoz-Sabater, J., Hasenauer, S., Isaksen, L., Kerr, Y., and Wagner, W.: Evaluation of remotely sensed and modelled soil moisture products using global ground-based in situ observations, Remote Sens. Environ., 118, 215–226, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.11.017, 2012. 
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An, R., Zhang, L., Wang, Z., Quaye-Ballard, J. A., You, J., Shen, X., Gao, W., Huang, L. J., Zhao, Y., and Ke, Z.: Validation of the ESA CCI soil moisture product in China, Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs., 48, 28–36, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2015.09.009, 2016. 
Archibald, S. A., Kirton, A., van der Merwe, M. R., Scholes, R. J., Williams, C. A., and Hanan, N.: Drivers of inter-annual variability in Net Ecosystem Exchange in a semi-arid savanna ecosystem, South Africa, Biogeosciences, 6, 251–266, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-6-251-2009, 2009. 
Bristow, D.: Vegetation of the Drakensberg, available at: http://southafrica.co.za/vegetation-drakensberg.html, last access: 30 September 2019. 
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Short summary
The paper evaluates soil moisture outputs from three structurally distinct models against in situ data. Our goal is to find how representative the model outputs are for site and region. This is a question of interest as some of the models have a specific regional focus on their inceptions. Much focus is placed on how the models capture the soil moisture signal. We find that there is agreement on seasonal patterns between the models and observations with a tolerable level of model uncertainty.