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New SnoTEL network insitu snow depth observation entering GTS, DWD showed benefits (1000 more observations) and challenges for the DWD LDAS. COOP observations should be in the pipeline for being shared.
JMA showed encouraging results from satellite data assimilation of AMSU data.
Assimilating VOD can improve NWP (shown by Pete Weston at ECMWF).
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Irrigation might be a connected modelling need?
NCMRWF LDAS make use of ASCAT/screenlevel and India insitu network (Agro-AWS) for soil moisture and soil temperature very useful for verification. Model variability inferior to observations variability.