| This paper describes a comparison between
two soil moisture prediction models. One is MORECS (Met Office Rainfall and
Evaporation Calculation Scheme), the Met Office soil moisture model that is used
by agriculture, flood modellers and weather forecasters to initialise their
models. The other is MOSES (Met Office Surface Exchange Scheme), modified with a
runoff generation module. The models are made compatible by increasing the
vegetation information available to MOSES. Both models were run with standard
parameters and were driven using meteorological observations at Wallingford
(1995-1997). Detailed soil moisture measurements were available at a grassland
site and a woodland site in this area. The comparison between the models and the
observed soil moisture indicated that, for the grassland site, MORECS dried out
too quickly in the spring and, for the woodland site, was too wet. Overall, the
performance of MOSES was superior. The soil moisture predicted by the new,
modified MOSES will be included as a product of Nimrod - the 5 km x 5km gridded
network of observed meteorological data across the UK.
Keywords: Soil moisture, model, observation, field capacity |