Satellite inspired hydrology in an uncertain future: an H SAF and HEPEX workshop

ECMWF | Reading | 25-28 November 2019

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Workshop description

ECMWF hosted the H SAF and HEPEX joint workshop on “Satellite inspired hydrology in an uncertain future”, with the following objectives:

  • To review the status of the hydrological variables retrieval algorithms and to prepare future satellites (e.g. METEOSAT Third Generation, METOP‐SG, SWOT)

  • To characterize the hydrological variable accuracy and to discuss requirements and validation metrics 


  • To review the status of modelling and data assimilation for hydrological and NWP applications and to share new ideas

  • To strengthen links between the H SAF and the Risk management, Hydrological and NWP communities to promote a consistent Earth system approach. 


The EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility (SAF) for the support to operational hydrology and water management (H SAF) aims to provide new satellite‐derived products from existing and future satellites with sufficient time and space resolution to satisfy the needs of operational hydrology. H SAF focuses on operational satellite derived products of precipitation, snow and soil moisture as well as the continuous validation of these products.

The HEPEX (Hydrological Ensemble Prediction Experiment) is a community of researchers and practitioners for hydrologic ensemble prediction. It is a voluntarily initiative with many people contributing and working on specific topics related to hydrological forecasting and hydrometeorological ensemble prediction. HEPEX seeks to advance the science and practice of hydrologic ensemble prediction and its usage for risk-based decision making by engaging in several ongoing activities.

Presentations and recordings

Monday 25 November 2019

Workshop information
Patricia de Rosnay (ECMWF)

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ECMWF Welcome
Florence Rabier (ECMWF)

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EUMETSAT Welcome
Lothar Schueller (EUMETSAT)

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H SAF Welcome
Francesco Zauli (ITAF COMET)

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HEPEX Welcome
Fredrik Wetterhall (ECMWF)

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Soil moisture products
Apostolos Giannakos (ZAMG), Sebastian Hahn (TU Wien), David Fairbairn (ECMWF)

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Soil moisture products: Quality assessment and hydrovalidation
Christian Massari (CNR-IRPI)

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HSAF Precipitation products
Davide Melfi (ITAF COMET)

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H SAF precipitation products: Quality assessment and hydro validation
Marco Petracca (Civil Protection Department)

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HSAF snow cover products: From developing to operation stage
Zuhal Akyurek (METU), Ali Nadir Arslan (Finnish Meteorological Institute)

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Operational validation of H SAF snow products
Simone Gabellani (CIMA Research Foundation)

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Tuesday 26 November 2019

Challenges for the HEPEX community in the coming years
Fredrik Wetterhall (ECMWF)

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Data assimilation for continuous global assessment of severe conditions over terrestrial surfaces
Clement Albergel (CNRM - Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS)

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Joint assimilation of soil moisture and flood extent maps retrieved from satellite earth observation into a conceptual hydrological model for improving flood prediction: a proof of concept study.
Renaud Hostache (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Environmental Research and Innovation Department)

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An automatic system for flood mapping based on Sentinel-1 data
Elisabetta Fiori (CIMA Research Foundation)

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Precipitation measurements for hydrological applications
Christopher Kidd (UMD/ESSIC & NASA/GSFC)

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Projected Advances in the Remote Sensing of Precipitation
Christian Kummerow (Colorado State University)

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Snow depth observations from Sentinel-1 over the Northern Hemisphere mountain ranges
Hans Lievens (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven)

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The impact of satellite data assimilation on hydrologic model perfor- mance
Jude Musuuza (SMHI)

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Characterization and monitoring of heavy precipitation events in the Mediterranean area using the H-SAF precipitation products
Giulia Panegrossi (Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council (ISAC/CNR))

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EO-based retrieval of snow cover, overview of selected snow products and their quality assessment
Kari Luojus (Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) Arctic Space Centre)

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Improving the snowmelt modelling in mesoscale Hydrological Model (mHM) with satellite based dynamically calculated degree-day factor
Birkan Erguc (Middle East Technical University)

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Combining Passive and Active Microwave Remote Sensing Data to Assess the Impact of Forest Fires on the Hydrology of Boreal Forests
Yannick Duguay (Université de Sherbrooke)

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Wednesday 27 November 2019

Optimization of the satellite datasets to study the water cycle at the global scale
Filipe Aires (LERMA / Observatoire de Paris / CNRS)

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SMOS Soil Moisture and its potential within the Copernicus Emergency Management Service for Flood Forecasting at ECMWF
Calum Baugh (ECMWF)

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Precipitation data assimilation at ECMWF
Philippe Lopez (ECMWF)

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Impact of UKV soil moisture data assimilation on potential operational forecast of river flows
Breo Gomez (Met Office)

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Satellite data and operational hydrology - A WMO perspective
Tommaso Abrate (World Meteorological Organization)

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Assimilation of SCATSAR-SWI with SURFEX: Resolution studies over Austria
Jasmin Vural (ZAMG Vienna, Austria)

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Development of snow depth assimilation for the Met Office UK forecasting system
Samantha Pullen (Met Office)

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Snow processes in bucket-type hydrological models – does increased realism lead to better simulations?
Jan Seibert (Department of Geography, University of Zurich)

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Improving hydrological prediction through data assimilation: results from the IMPREX and eWaterCycle II projects
Albrecht Weerts (Deltares)

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The use of H-SAF soil moisture products for event-based hydrological modelling in Liguria (north of Italy)
Federica Martina (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente Ligure (ARPAL)), Martina Raffellini (International Centre on Environmental Monitoring (CIMA) Research Foundation)

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Assimilation of flood maps derived from satellite SAR data into a flood forecasting model
Concetta Di Mauro (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology)

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Understanding Water Availability Within Ugandan through the Drought and Flood Mitigation Service
Samantha Lavender (Pixalytics Ltd)

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Thursday 28 November 2019

Hydrological data assimilation using machine learning
Marie-Amélie Boucher (Université de Sherbrooke)

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Retrieval of soil moisture using neural networks
Filipe Aires (LERMA / Observatoire de Paris / CNRS)

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On the impacts of location, timing, and frequency of inundation extent assimilation on flood forecast skill
Renaud Hostache (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology)

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Sequential and variational assimilation of satellite snow data through a conceptual hydrological model in a mountainous catchment
Gokcen Uysal (Eskisehir Technical University)

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Implementation of a coupled land-atmosphere modeling system within a northwestern Mexican river basin
Jocelyn Betsabe Serrano Barragan (National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM))

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H SAF soil moisture products

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H SAF precipitation products

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H SAF snow products

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HEPEX products

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Posters

EUMETSAT HSAF SNOW COVER PRODUCTS: H10 and H34
Zuhal Akyurek (METU), Kenan Bolat (Hidrosaf Software)

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Overview of the Met Office land surface data assimilation system
Cristina Charlton-Perez (Met Office)

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The H SAF H64 soil moisture-precipitation integrated product:development and preliminary results
Luca Ciabatta (CNR-IRPI)

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Preparing for SWOT data assimilation in a coupled atmosphere-surface-hydrology-hydrodynamics prediction system
Milena Dimitrijevic (Environment and Climate Change Canada)

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H SAF root-zone soil moisture products from ASCAT assimilation
David Fairbairn (ECMWF)

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Development of a machine learning hydrological forecast model using in-situ and remote sensing data
Renaud Jougla (Université de Sherbrooke)

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Towards a HEPEX-HSAF testbed for the development of data assimilation techniques in combination with remote sensing data for improving operational flow forecasting systems
Peter Krahe (Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde), Asta Kunkel (Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde)

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On the use of EUMETSAT-H SAF soil moisture records for monitoring flood and drought periods 2011 to 2018 in Central Europe
Peter Krahe (Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde), Asta Kunkel (Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde)

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Ensemble streamflow data assimilation with NOAA’s National Water Model: Novel methods and evaluation applied to hurricane Florence hindcasts.
James McCreight (National Center for Atmospheric Research)

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Data assimilation of remotely sensed soil moisture in hydrological modeling to improve flood forecasting
Khaled Mohammed (Université de Sherbrooke)

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The new H-SAF H67 and H68 precipitation products
Paolo Sanò (Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council (ISAC/CNR), Rome)

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Workshop report

Organising committee

David Fairbairn, Patricia de Rosnay, Fredrik Wetterhall

Scientific organising committee

Zuhal Akyurek, Rodolfo Alvarado, Luca Ciabatta, Simone Gabellani, Flavio Gattari, Ali Nadir Arslan, Silvia Puca, Paolo Sanò, Aynur Sensoy

Sessions

1. Remote sensing, hydrological modelling and data assimilation

  • Remote sensing techniques and products for hydrological variables, including soil moisture, precipitation and snow, especially for ensemble forecasting
  • Reviewing current and planning for future satellite missions
  • Assimilation and use of remotely sensed observations in land surface and hydrological models

2. Hydrological validation and benchmarking

  • Validating products against ground measurements, satellite products or other hydrological models
  • Evaluating a products performance against a suitable benchmark i.e. a model or data set with a defined expectation of performance
  • Post-processing techniques for downscaling remote sensing to local applications
  • Exploring novel validation techniques using spatial and temporal data

3. Hydrological data assimilation for NWP

  • Assimilating remotely sensed and ground based observations into NWP models
  • Validating the impact of hydrological assimilation on NWP forecast skill
  • Coupled data assimilation approaches in NWP e.g. land-atmosphere
  • Multi-sensor and ensemble data assimilation procedures

4. Impacts of hydrological uncertainty, hydrological forecasting and modelling

  • Monitoring and forecasting of floods, droughts and other hydrological hazards
  • Monitoring and modelling impacts of hydrological variability on water resources (e.g. rivers, reservoirs), including both natural (e.g. droughts) and anthropogenic (e.g. dams) influences;
  • Incorporating uncertainty in hydrological forecasting (assessing uncertainties in initial conditions, parameter values, tendencies et cetera)
  • Monitoring and modelling impacts of climate change on water resources

5. Novel hydrological data sources and assimilation techniques

  • Novel data assimilation techniques, including coupled data assimilation approaches
  • Integrating novel observational data in hydrological ensemble prediction systems (probabilistic-based inundation maps, crowdsourced data, citizen science approaches, etc.)
  • New available data sources for hydrological data assimilation
  • Linking large scale data and models to local knowledge and needs in hydrological forecasting and decision-making
  • From traditional flood forecasting to impact-based forecasting (including e.g. inundation mapping, economic assessment, decision-based analysis.