Assimilation of Earth Observation Data Over Cropland and Grassland Sites into a Simple GPP Model

The application of detailed process-oriented simulation models for gross primary production (GPP) estimation is constrained by the scarcity of the data needed for their parametrization. In this manuscript, we present the development and test of the assimilation of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) observations into a simple process-based model driven by basic meteorological variables (i.e., global radiation, temperature, precipitation and reference evapotranspiration, all from global circulation models of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). The model is run at daily time-step using meteorological forcing and provides estimates of GPP and LAI, the latter used to simulate MODIS NDVI though the coupling with the radiative transfer model PROSAIL5B. Modelled GPP is compared with the remote sensing-driven MODIS GPP product (MOD17) and the quality of both estimates are assessed against GPP from European eddy covariance flux sites over crops and grasslands. Model performances in GPP estimation (R ² = 0.67, RMSE = 2.45 gC m ⁻² d ⁻¹ , MBE = -0.16 gC m ⁻² d ⁻¹ ) were shown to outperform those of MOD17 for the investigated sites (R 2 = 0.53, RMSE = 3.15 gC m ⁻² d ⁻¹ , MBE = -1.08 gC m ⁻² d ⁻¹ ).