A First Verification of Sim<i>2D</i>Sphere Model’s Ability to Predict the Spatiotemporal Variability of Parameters Characterizing Land Surface Interactions at Diverse European Ecosystems

Abstract

Land–atmosphere interactions (LSIs) involve intricate complex processes that drive critical exchanges of energy and matter that influence ecosystem and climate dynamics, with variations in ecosystem responses and feedback effects depending on their specific environmental characteristics. To this end, this study represents the first extensive validation of the Sim2DSphere model, to establish its coherence and use in the study of LSIs across a range of biomes and climatic zones. For this purpose, water and energy fluxes from a total of 10 eddy covariance sites and a total of 12 calendar days were analyzed. Earth observation (EO) data were integrated with ground observations at the different sites to execute the Sim2DSphere model. The diurnal dynamics of energy fluxes were compared against corresponding ground measurements. The results showed that the highest accuracy was observed for the grassland sites (R2 from >0.85; RMSE −2), whereas the lowest accuracy was found in forest sites (R2 from >0.80; RMSE −2). All in all, these initial results obtained herein are very promising and demonstrate the models’ promising potential in the study of LSIs at variant spatiotemporal resolutions.

Keywords

• earth observation
• SVAT
• Sim<i>2D</i>Sphere
• land surface interactions
• surface heterogeneity
• FLUXNET