AMSR-E Daily Soil Moisture and Temperature Data for Alabama

SMEX03 AMSR-E Daily Gridded Soil Moisture and Brightness Temperatures, Alabama, Version 1 contains Level-3 daily measurements from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System. The dataset was produced by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) for the Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 (SMEX03). It provides surface soil moisture and temperature data for Alabama.

Use Cases

• Validating soil moisture models against microwave brightness temperature observations.
• Analyzing daily surface temperature variations over land in Alabama.
• Studying the relationship between land surface roughness and microwave spectral signatures.
• Assimilating gridded soil moisture data into regional hydrological forecasts.

Strengths

• Data originates from the AMSR-E instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite, a recognized source for microwave Earth observation.
• Provides daily gridded measurements, offering consistent temporal resolution for time-series analysis.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov indicates established use and importance.

Limitations

• Documentation was provided solely by Principal Investigators and not reviewed by NSIDC, which may limit support.
• Critical metadata such as row count, specific column names, and exact file size are unavailable from all sources.
• Platforms disagree on the last updated date, reporting both 2003-08-31 and 2026-03 12.

Provenance

Source

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E).

Time Range

2003 (specific daily coverage for SMEX03 experiment)

Freshness

2026 03 12 22:25:51.002042

Geography

Alabama, USA