IS LARGE-SCALE INVERSE MODELING OF UNSATURATED FLOW WITH AREAL AVERAGE EVAPORATION AND SURFACE SOIL-MOISTURE AS ESTIMATED FROM REMOTE-SENSING FEASIBLE

The potentiality of combining large-scale inverse modelling of unsaturated flow with remote sensing determination of areal evaporation and areal surface moisture is assessed. Regional latent and sensible heat fluxes are estimated indirectly using remotely sensed measurements by parameterizing the surface energy balance equation. An example of evapotranspiration mapping from northern and central Egypt is presented. The inverse problem is formulated with respect to the type of information available. Two examples of estimation of soil hydraulic properties by the dynamic one-dimensional soil-water-vegetation model SWATRE are given: one refers to a classical lysimeter scale and another one to a catchment scale. It is concluded that small-scale soil physics may describe large-scale hydrological behaviour adequately, and that the effective hydraulic parameters concerned may be derived by an inverse modelling approach. Remotely sensed data on surface reflectance, surface temperature and soil moisture content derived from multifrequency microwave techniques provide a useful data set on the mesoscale. The inverse modelling approach presented combined with a meso-scale data set on evaporation and surface soil moisture, considerable potentialities arise to determine effective meso-scale hydraulic properties.