SMAP L2 Radar Half-Orbit 3 km EASE-Grid Soil Moisture, Version 3
Data set id:
SPL2SMA
DOI: 10.5067/J8SGO1E0Y9XZ
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Version Summary
Changes to this version include:
For the full major and minor version history, go to https://nsidc.org/data/smap/version-history
- Transitioned to Validated-Stage 1
- Uses updated SPL1CS0 V3 as input
- Updates to some of the data cubes
- Update of crop database
- Modified iterative bias correction
- Estimation of VWC
For the full major and minor version history, go to https://nsidc.org/data/smap/version-history
Overview
This Level-2 (L2) soil moisture product provides estimates of global land surface conditions retrieved by the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) active radar during 6:00 a.m. descending half-orbit passes, as well as ancillary data such as surface temperature and vegetation water content. Input backscatter data used to derive soil moisture are resampled to an Earth-fixed, global, cylindrical 3 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid, Version 2.0 (EASE-Grid 2.0).
Parameter(s):
SIGMA NAUGHTSOIL MOISTURE
Platform(s):
SMAP Observatory
Sensor(s):
SMAP L-Band Radar
Data Format(s):
HDF5, HDF5
Temporal Coverage:
13 April 2015 to 7 July 2015
Temporal Resolution:
- 49 minute
Spatial Resolution:
- 3 km
- 3 km
Spatial Reference System(s):
WGS 84 / NSIDC EASE-Grid 2.0 Global
EPSG:6933
Spatial Coverage:
N:
85.044
S:
-85.044
E:
180
W:
-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
Data Access & Tools
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Documentation
User Guide
ATBDs
General Resources
Quality Assessment Reports
Product Specification Documents
Help Articles
General Questions & FAQs
SMAP Ancillary data sets are used to produce SMAP Level-1, -2, -3, and -4 standard data products.
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
Harmony API Quickstart Guide: Customizing NASA NSIDC DAAC data in Earthdata Cloud
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.
The following are instructions on how to import and geolocate SMAP Level-1C HDF5 data in ENVI.
Testing notes
Software: ENVI
Software version: 5.3 and above. If using version 5.3, service pack 5.3.1 is needed.
Platform: Windows 7
All data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is directly accessible through our HTTPS file system using Wget or curl. This article provides basic command line instructions for accessing data using this method.
This article highlights the NSIDC DAAC data sets available with customization options and outlines a workflow for searching, ordering, and customizing data in NASA Earthdata Search. This approach is ideal for users who want to download data to their local machine.