SMEX04 Regional Soil Moisture Data: Arizona

Arizona, USA, is the regional study area for this combined data set from the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 (SMEX04). It includes measurements for several soil and land surface parameters, such as moisture, temperature, and conductivity. The data is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but its documentation was not reviewed by NSIDC.

Use Cases

• Calibrating soil moisture remote sensing algorithms using in-situ soil moisture measurements.
• Modeling land-atmosphere interactions based on soil temperature and thermal conductivity data.
• Assessing agricultural water use efficiency using soil hydraulic conductivity and bulk density.
• Monitoring land surface changes with geospatial soil salinity and electrical conductivity readings.

Strengths

• Cross-platform presence on datagov and nasa_earthdata signals importance and availability.
• Combines multiple related soil and atmospheric parameters from a controlled experiment.
• Provided by a major authoritative organization, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Limitations

• Documentation was provided solely by the Principal Investigators and not reviewed by NSIDC, which may limit support.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and file size are unknown across all sources.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date: datagov lists 2026-04-09, while nasa_earthdata lists 2004-08-26.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured as part of the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 (SMEX04) field campaign.

Time Range

2004

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:09:56.334781 (from datagov, though this future date may be an error)

Geography

Regional study area of Arizona, USA