Calibration of VIC-3L Hydrological Model using Satellite-Based Surface Soil Moisture Datasets

This study addresses the efficiency of ASCAT surface soil moisture (SSM) for calibration of VIC-3L hydrologic model over the Sefidrood river basin (SRB). Findings on daily time scale indicate that the correlation coefficient (CC) between observed and simulated streamflow, using ASCAT dataset, is equal to 0.75, while in the case of calibration of the VIC-3L model using only with hydrometric station datasets the CC value is equal to 0.80. Moreover, at monthly time scale the performance of model in simulating streamflow is better than daily time scale. The relative error (RE) in simulating runoff volume at daily and monthly time scale is 17.2% and 38.5%, respectively and this shows that using ASCAT dataset at monthly time scale leads to reliable results. In addition, one the advantages of model calibration using satellite-based SSm is the extraction of the spatial pattern of model parameters over the catchment, while in the case of using observed discharge dataset for calibration of the model only leads to the constant values of model’s parameter through the catchment. Based on the results of this research it highly recommended to use satellite-based SSMs for calibration of hydrological model, especially in data limited areas or regions in which ground observations are sparsely-distributed or insufficient.