SMEX04: Land Use Classification for Hydrologic Modeling

SMEX04 Land Use Classification Data, Sonora, Version 1 was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the Soil Moisture Experiment of 2004. The dataset provides land use classifications derived from six Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper scenes and a Digital Elevation Model for study regions in Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico. It was designed specifically for modeling and scaling hydrologic variables.

Use Cases

• Modeling hydrologic variables based on land use classification.
• Scaling soil moisture estimates using geospatial land cover data.
• Analyzing land surface characteristics for a specific field experiment (SMEX04).

Strengths

• Derived from six satellite scenes (Landsat 5 TM), suggesting spatial coverage for the study areas.
• Created for a specific, well-documented scientific experiment (Soil Moisture Experiment of 2004).
• Cross-platform presence on datagov and nasa_earthdata indicates established use and archival.

Limitations

• Documentation was provided solely by Principal Investigators and not reviewed/edited by NSIDC, leading to potential support gaps.
• Key metadata like column names, row count, and file size are unknown across all sources.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date (2004 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about data currency.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Constructed from six Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper scenes and one Digital Elevation Model.

Time Range

2004

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:18:34.690561

Geography

Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico