Monitoring soil moisture change in North Africa with using satellite remote sensing and land data assimilaiton system

In this study, we generated and compared two sets of soil moisture data in the North Africa region, by using the land data assimilation system developed at the University of Tokyo (LDAS-UT) which is driven by the NECP reanalysis data and UKMO forcing data, separately. GPCP precipitation data was used as reference data for the indirect validation, after its accuracy was confirmed by comparing it with the in-situ observation in the Medjerdah Basin. The soil moisture generated by LDAS-UT with NECP forcing is in a good relationship to the GPCP rainfall data, while that generated by LDAS-UT with UKMO forcing is mismatching with the GPCP precipitation patterns.