AMSR2/GCOM-W1: Downscaled Soil Moisture & Land Parameters

Global satellite-derived land surface parameters are provided from May 2012 to the present. This Level 2 swath dataset contains surface soil moisture, land surface (skin) temperature, and vegetation water content, retrieved from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) data using the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM). The data is downscaled to a 10 km by 10 km grid using the smoothing filter-based intensity modulation technique.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought conditions based on surface soil moisture retrievals.
• Analyzing land surface energy balance using derived skin temperature from the Ka-band.
• Studying vegetation health and water stress via vegetation water content estimates.
• Assessing soil moisture trends over time using the continuous record from May 2012.
• Validating hydrological models with geospatial data downscaled to a 10 km grid.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous global time series from May 2012 to the present.
• Derives three key land parameters (soil moisture, temperature, vegetation water content) from a unified retrieval model.
• Offers enhanced spatial detail through downscaling from nominal resolutions to a 10 km grid.

Limitations

• Exact column names, row counts, and dataset size are unspecified across all sources.
• License information is inconsistent ('other-license-specified' on datagov vs. null on nasa_earthdata).
• The spatial resolution is derived through resampling and downscaling, not native sensor resolution.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), using data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) GCOM-W1 satellite.

Collection Method

Passive microwave remote sensing data processed with the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) and downscaled using the SFIM technique.

Time Range

May 2012 to the present.

Freshness

Last updated on datagov: 2026-03-13 18:05:37.400373.

Geography

Global.