Towards effective drought monitoring in the Middle  East and North Africa (MENA) region: implications  from assimilating leaf area index and soil moisture  into the Noah-MP land surface model for Morocco

Nie, Wanshu; Kumar, Sujay V.; Arsenault, Kristi R.; Peters-Lidard, Christa D.; Mladenova, Iliana E.; Bergaoui, Karim; Hazra, Abheera; Zaitchik, Benjamin F.; Mahanama, Sarith P.; McDonnell, Rachael; Mocko, David M.; Navari, Mahdi

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2365-2022

Articles | Volume 26, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2365-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2365-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 9

Research article

|

06 May 2022

Research article |

| 06 May 2022

Towards effective drought monitoring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: implications from assimilating leaf area index and soil moisture into the Noah-MP land surface model for Morocco

Wanshu Nie, Sujay V. Kumar, Kristi R. Arsenault, Christa D. Peters-Lidard, Iliana E. Mladenova, Karim Bergaoui, Abheera Hazra, Benjamin F. Zaitchik, Sarith P. Mahanama, Rachael McDonnell, David M. Mocko, and Mahdi Navari

Data sets

MCD15A2H MODIS/Terra+Aqua Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-day L4 Global 500 m SIN Grid V006 R. Myneni, Y. Knyazikhin, and T. Park https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD15A2H.061

Data associated with the publication: Towards effective drought monitoring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Implications from assimilating leaf area index and soil moisture into the Noah-MP land surface model for Morocco, V1 W. Nie, S. V. Kumar, K. R. Arsenault, C. D. Peters-Lidard, I. E. Mladenova, K. Bergaoui, A. Hazra, B. F. Zaitchik, S. P. Mahanama, R. McDonnell, D. M. Mocko, and M. Navari https://doi.org/10.7281/T1/X4MXHC

Short summary

The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region faces significant food and water insecurity and hydrological hazards. Here we investigate the value of assimilating remote sensing data sets into an Earth system model to help build an effective drought monitoring system and support risk mitigation and management by countries in the region. We highlight incorporating satellite-informed vegetation conditions into the model as being one of the key processes for a successful application for the region.