Modeling Processes of Water and Heat Regime Formation for Agricultural Region Area (Russia) Utilizing Satellite Data

To assess the availability of water in a large agricultural region, the method of calculating the characteristics of water and heat regimes for vegetation seasons has been developed, using the physical-mathematical model of water and heat exchange between land surface and atmosphere (LSM, Land Surface Model), adapted to satellite data on land surface and meteorological conditions. The case study has been carried out for the part of the Central Black Earth Region (CBER) of 227,300 km2, located in the European Russia, for the vegetation seasons of 2014–2016. Methods and technologies of estimating vegetation and meteorological characteristics retrieved from the measurement data of the radiometers AVHRR/NOAA, SEVIRI/Meteosat-10, and MSU-MR/Meteor-M No. 2, as well as procedures of using obtained satellite-derived estimates in the model are briefly described. The results of simulation of soil water content, evapotranspiration, and other water and heat regime characteristics for the region of interest over the above vegetation seasons are presented. The results of calculating soil surface moisture using measurement data from the scatterometer ASCAT/MetOp-B are also shown.