Upper Feather River Watershed

Global canopy interception from satellite observations

This analysis presents daily values of canopy rainfall interception on a global 0.25° latitudeâ€êlongitude resolution grid. It is based on the revised version of Gash's analytical model [Valente et al., 1997] driven by satellite remotely sensed data of precipitation, lightning frequency and canopy fraction A new methodology for estimating forest rainfall interception from multisatellite observations is presented. The Climate Prediction Center morphing technique (CMORPH) precipitation product is used as driving data and is applied to Gash's analytical model to derive daily interception rates at global scale. Results compare well with field observations of rainfall interception (R = 0.86, n = 42). Global estimates are presented and spatial differences in the distribution of interception over different ecosystems analyzed. According to our findings, interception loss is responsible for the evaporation of approximately 13% of the total incoming rainfall over broadleaf evergreen forests, 19% in broadleaf deciduous forests, and 22% in needleleaf forests. The product is sensitive to the volume of rainfall, rain intensity, and forest cover. In combination with separate estimates of transpiration it offers the potential to study the impact of climate change and deforestation on the dynamics of the global hydrological cycle.

This product could be used as part of an independent ensemble of global benchmark data sets called for by Blyth et al. [2009] to evaluate the performance of global climate models.

2015-08-21

Journal of geophysical research; Atmospheres

Climate, Forestry, Hydrology

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