Changes to this version include:
• The climatology to which all L4_SM precipitation forcing inputs are rescaled is now based on the climatology of the NASA IMERG-Final (Version 06B) product. Where the IMERG climatology is not available (primarily poleward of 60ºN latitude), L4_SM precipitation inputs are rescaled to the climatology of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) v2.3 product.
• The L4_SM precipitation forcing outside of North America and the high latitudes is now corrected to match the daily totals from the NASA IMERG (Version 06B) product. As in Version 5, precipitation corrections based on CPCU data are used in North America. The latitude band for the linear tapering of the daily precipitation corrections is now 50-60ºN/S. The IMERG-Final product, which is informed by satellite observations and monthly totals from precipitation gauges, was used during L4_SM reprocessing. Forward-processing of L4_SM uses the satellite-only IMERG-Late product, which is not informed by precipitation gauges. A change in the L4_SM Science Version ID indicates the switch from IMERG-Final to IMERG-Late inputs.
• Minor change in a parameter related to the multiplicative, lognormal perturbations of precipitation and shortwave radiation forcing to reduce minor bias between perturbed and unperturbed forcing.
The brightness temperature scaling parameters in the updated Level-4 soil moisture algorithm are based on six years of SMAP observations (April 2015 – March 2021).