• Data is currently available for this data set from 04 Dec 2023 onward. Data since 31 March 2015 will become available as they are reprocessed.

SMAP Enhanced L3 Radiometer Global and Northern Hemisphere Daily 9 km EASE-Grid Freeze/Thaw State, Version 4
Data set id:
SPL3FTP_E
DOI: 10.5067/NQLCDOZJYAKX
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Changes to this version include:
• Minor bug fix to correct the indexing of bits in the AMSER-E never-frozen never-thawed maps
• An improved processing methodology was applied to the input enhanced Level-1C radiometer brightness temperatures.
• The data algorithms, structure, content, or processor code are otherwise unchanged from the previous version.

For the full major and minor version history, go to https://nsidc.org/data/smap/version-history

Overview

This enhanced Level-3 (L3) product provides a daily composite of global and Northern Hemisphere landscape freeze/thaw conditions retrieved by the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer from 6:00 a.m. descending and 6:00 p.m. ascending half-orbit passes. This product is derived from SMAP enhanced Level-1C brightness temperatures (SPL1CTB_E). Backus-Gilbert optimal interpolation techniques are used to extract maximum information from SMAP antenna temperatures and convert them to brightness temperatures. The data are then posted to two 9 km Earth-fixed, Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grids, Version 2.0 (EASE-Grid 2.0): a global cylindrical and a Northern Hemisphere azimuthal.
Parameter(s):
TRANSITION DIRECTION
Platform(s):
SMAP
Sensor(s):
SMAP L-BAND RADIOMETER
Data Format(s):
HDF5
Temporal Coverage:
31 March 2015 to present
Temporal Resolution:
  • 1 day
Spatial Resolution:
  • 9 km
  • 9 km
Spatial Reference System(s):
WGS 84 / NSIDC EASE-Grid 2.0 North
EPSG:6931

WGS 84 / NSIDC EASE-Grid 2.0 Global
EPSG:6933
Spatial Coverage:
N:
85.044
S:
-85.044
E:
180
W:
-180
N:
85.044
S:
45
E:
180
W:
-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.

Data Access & Tools

A free NASA Earthdata Login account is required to access these data. Learn More

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

There is considerable overlap of the SMAP radiometer footprints, or Instantaneous Fields of View (IFOVs), which are defined by the contours where the sensitivity of the antenna has fallen by 3db from its maximum.
OPeNDAP, the Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol, is a NASA community standard DAP that provides a simple way for researchers to access and work with data over the internet.
SMAP Ancillary data sets are used to produce SMAP Level-1, -2, -3, and -4 standard data products.
The following table describes both the required and actual latencies for the different SMAP radiometer data sets. Latency is defined as the time (# days, hh:mm:ss) from data acquisition to product generation.
This short article describes the customization services available for SMAP data using Earthdata Search.

How to Articles

Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using the NSIDC DAAC's Data Access Tool. This tool provides the ability to search and filter data with spatial and temporal constraints using a map-based interface.Users have the option to
To convert HDF5 files into binary format you will need to use the h5dump utility, which is part of the HDF5 distribution available from the HDF Group. How you install HDF5 depends on your operating system.
Data subscriptions are available for select NSIDC DAAC data collections. Once signed up, the subscription service automatically sends you new data as they are delivered from active NASA satellite missions.
All data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) can be accessed directly from our HTTPS file system, using wget or curl. Basic command line instructions are provided in the article below. 
NASA Earthdata Search is a map-based interface where a user can search for Earth science data, filter results based on spatial and temporal constraints, and order data with customizations including re-formatting, re-projecting, and spatial and parameter subsetting.
NASA Worldview is a map interface that allows users to interactively browse imagery, create visualizations, and download the underlying data.
NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) provides up to date, full resolution imagery for selected NSIDC DAAC data sets.