David Mocko

David.Mocko@nasa.gov
(301) 614-6222

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • 1994
Master of Science, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University
  • 1991
Physics Major, The College of New Jersey
  • 1987
Madison High School, Madison, New Jersey

Research Interests

  • Land-surface modeling
  • Soil moisture and snowmelt
  • Water and energy fluxes
  • Model intercomparisons

Background

I work for SAIC in the Climate and Radiation Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland within the United States on Earth.

I am interested in studying land-surface interactions, which involves examining the exchanges of moisture and heat between the air, the ground or vegetation, and the sub-surface soil. Some studies in this area include the nature of droughts and floods, soil moisture, snowmelt, and water and energy which a land-surface model would supply an atmospheric model. Our group has developed the HY-SSiB land-surface model, which contains several upgrades to the snow physics and hydrology of the Simplified Simple Biosphere Model (SSiB).

I am currently working on two projects, the first of which is under the ARMS project to use a land-surface model to simulate surface soil moisture on the watershed scale. With the use of a few remotely-sensed observations, parameter estimation is used with the model to estimate soil textures and properties. The other project on which I am working is a model analysis intercomparison study as part of the Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project (CEOP). For this study, global and reference site data from numerous modeling centers is intercompared as well as compared to observations.

I have participated in the Global Soil Wetness Project, the GLACE intercomparsion, as well as PILPS Phase 2(e). For these projects, numerous international groups used atmospheric forcing data to drive their land-surface models to produce soil moisture, snow cover, runoff, sensible heat, and evaporation.

Useful Links


Latest Publications

Peters-Lidard, C. D., D. M. Mocko, M. Garcia, J. A. Santanello, M. A. Tischler, M. S. Moran, and Y. Wu, 2008: Role of precipitation uncertainty in the estimation of hydrologic soil properties using remotely-sensed soil moisture in a semi-arid environment. Water Resour. Res., USDA-ARS-SWRC special issue, 44, W05S18, doi:10.1029/2007WR005884. [Abstract]

Santanello, J. A., Jr., C. D. Peters-Lidard, M. Garcia, D. M. Mocko, M. A. Tischler, M. S. Moran, and D. P. Thoma, 2007: Using remotely-sensed estimates of soil moisture to infer soil texture and hydraulic properties across a semi-arid watershed. Rem. Sens. of Environ., 110, 79–97, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2007.02.007. [Abstract]

Sud, Y. C., D. M. Mocko, and S.-J. Lin, 2006: Performance of two cloud-radiation parameterization schemes in the fvGCM for anomalously wet May and June 2003 over the continental United States and Amazonia. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 111(D6), 6201, doi:10.1029/2005JD006246. [Abstract]

Seneviratne, S. I., R. D. Koster, Z.-C. Guo, P. A. Dirmeyer, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, D. M. Mocko, K. W. Oleson, and D. Verseghy, 2006: Soil moisture memory in AGCM simulations: Analysis of Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE) data. J. Hydrometeor., 7(5), 1090-1112. [Abstract]

Koster, R. D., Z.-C. Guo, P. A. Dirmeyer, G. Bonan, E. Chan, P. Cox, H. Davies, C. T. Gordon, S. Kanae, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, S. Malyshev, B. McAvaney, K. Mitchell, D. M. Mocko, T. Oki, K. W. Oleson, A. Pitman, Y. C. Sud, et al., 2006: GLACE: The Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment. Part I: Overview. J. Hydrometeor., 7(4), 590-610. [Abstract]

Guo, Z.-C., P. A. Dirmeyer, R. D. Koster, G. Bonan, E. Chan, P. Cox, C. T. Gordon, S. Kanae, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, S. Malyshev, B. McAvaney, J. L. McGregor, K. Mitchell, D. M. Mocko, T. Oki, K. W. Oleson, A. Pitman, Y. C. Sud, et al., 2006: GLACE: The Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment. Part II: Analysis. J. Hydrometeor., 7(4), 611-625. [Abstract]

Koster, R. D., P. A. Dirmeyer, Z. Guo, G. Bonan, E. Chan, P. Cox, C. T. Gordon, S. Kanae, E. Kowalczyk, D. Lawrence, P. Liu, C.-H. Lu, S. Malyshev, B. McAvaney, K. Mitchell, D. Mocko, T. Oki, K. Oleson, A. Pitman, Y. C. Sud, et al., 2004: Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation. Science, 305(5687), 1138-1140. [Abstract] [Full Text (PDF)]

Bowling, L. C., D. P. Lettenmaier, B. Nijssen, P. Graham, D. B. Clark, M. El Maayar, R. Essery, S. Goers, Y. M. Gusev, F. Habets, B. van den Hurk, J. Jin, D. Kahan, D. Lohmann, X. Ma, S. Mahanama, D. Mocko, O. Nasonova, G.-Y. Niu, et al., 2003: Simulation of high-latitude hydrological processes in the Torne-Kalix basin: PILPS phase 2(e). Parts 1 & 2. Glob. and Plan. Change, 38(1-2), 1-53. [Abstract]

Sud, Y. C., D. M. Mocko, K.-M. Lau, and R. Atlas, 2003: Simulating the midwestern U.S. drought of 1988 with a GCM. J. Climate, 16(23), 3946-3965. [Abstract]

Schlosser, C. A., and D. M. Mocko, 2003: The impact of snow conditions in spring dynamical seasonal predictions. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 108(D16), 8616, doi:10.1029/2002JD003113. [Abstract]

View all my Publications

Latest Images of the Week

Improvements to Climate Model Result in Better Precipitation Forecasts for the United States for the wet Spring of 2003 (Jan 30, 2005)
Soil moisture regional impacts on summer rainfall (Sep 12, 2004)

View all my IOTWs