SMAP L4 9 km EASE-Grid Surface and Root Zone Soil Moisture Land Model Constants, Version 3
Data set id:
SPL4SMLM
DOI: 10.5067/4IYTBSUKM57Q
There is a more recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Version Summary
Changes to this version include (1) SMAP observations are now assimilated in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia due to expanded coverage of the brightness temperature scaling parameters. The latter are based on two years of SMAP Version 3 brightness temperature observations where the SMOS climatology is unavailable due to RFI. (2) An improved version of the model-only Nature Run (NRv4.1) simulation is used to derive the brightness temperature scaling parameters, the model soil moisture initial conditions, and the soil moisture climatology. (3) Minor bug fixes.
Overview
SMAP Level-4 (L4) surface and root zone soil moisture data are provided in three products: (1) SMAP L4 9 km EASE-Grid Surface and Root Zone Soil Moisture Geophysical Data (SPL4SMGP). (2) SMAP L4 9 km EASE-Grid Surface and Root Zone Soil Moisture Analysis Update (SPL4SMAU). (3) SMAP L4 9 km EASE-Grid Surface and Root Zone Soil Moisture Land Model Constants (SPL4SMLM).
For each product, SMAP L-band brightness temperature data from descending and ascending half-orbit satellite passes (approximately 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. local solar time, respectively) are assimilated into a land surface model that is gridded using an Earth-fixed, global, cylindrical 9 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid, Version 2.0 (EASE-Grid 2.0) projection.
Parameter(s):
SOIL CLASSIFICATION
SOIL DEPTH
SOIL POROSITY
SOIL TEXTURE
TERRAIN ELEVATION
Platform(s):
SMAP
Sensor(s):
SMAP L-BAND RADAR
Data Format(s):
HDF5
Temporal Coverage:
- 31 March 2015 to present
Temporal Resolution:
Not Specified
Spatial Resolution:
- 9 km
- 9 km
Spatial Reference System(s):
Not Specified
Spatial Coverage:
- N:85.044S:-85.044E:180W:-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
Data Access & Tools
This data set has been retired. There is a more recent version of these data.
Documentation
User Guide
ATBDs
Quality Assessment Reports
Product Specification Documents
Help Articles
General Questions & FAQs
This article covers frequently asked questions about the NASA NSIDC DAAC's Earthdata cloud migration project and what it means to data users.
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.
There are a few reasons that the soil moisture data values in SMAP Level-4 data products may vary from what you expect in a particular region. The first step a data user should take in investigating apparently anomalous values is to look at the rich quality information and other data flags c
The surface and root zone soil moisture estimates in the SMAP Level-4 soil moisture products are the outputs of a land surface model into which SMAP observations of brightness temperature have been assimilated.
How to Articles
Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using 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.
The following are instructions on how to import and geolocate SMAP Level-3 Radiometer Soil Moisture HDF5 data in ENVI.
Testing notes
Software: ENVI
Software version: 5.3
Platform: Windows 7
This How to guide outlines the steps for properly importing, projecting and visualizing HDF and NetCDF files in ArcMap. A couple of things to note before you start:
The NASA Earthdata Cloud is the NASA cloud-based archive of Earth observations. It is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Learn how to find and access NSIDC DAAC data directly in the cloud.
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.