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Description

AMSR2/GCOM-W1 surface soil moisture (LPRM) L3 1 day 25 km x 25 km ascending V001 is a Level 3 (gridded) data set. Its land surface parameters, surface soil moisture, land surface (skin) temperature, and vegetation water content, are derived from passive microwave remote sensing data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), using the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM). There are two files per day, one ascending (daytime) and one descending (nighttime), archived as two different products. This document is for the daytime product. The data set covers the period from May 2012, when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission-1st Water GCOM-W1 satellite was launched, to the present.

The LPRM is based on a forward radiative transfer model to retrieve surface soil moisture and vegetation optical depth. The land surface temperature is derived separately from the AMSR2's Ka-band (36.5 GHz). A unique feature of this method is that it can be applied at any microwave frequency, making it very suitable to exploit all the available passive microwave data from various satellites.

Input data are from the AMSR2 spatial-resolution-matched brightness temperatures (L1SGRTBR) product, daytime passes, as processed using LPRM (i.e., LPRM/AMSR2/GCOM-W1 Level 2 product, LPRM_AMSR2_SOILM2_V001).

Product Summary

Platforms
GCOM-W1
Instruments
AMSR2
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Location
GLOBAL LAND
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2012-07-03 to Present
Data Partner
Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (formerly Goddard DAAC), Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDI
Concept ID
C1235316198-GES_DISC
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
4949
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Vegetation Water Content ,
Soil Moisture/Water Content ,
Skin Temperature

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

de Jeu, R. (2013). AMSR2/GCOM-W1 surface soil moisture (LPRM) L3 1 day 25 km x 25 km ascending V001 [Data set]. NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/M5DTR2QUYLS2 Date Accessed: 2026-01-28

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
frequency_map frequency_map GHz int16 -1 N/A 0.10000000149012
Latitude Latitude degrees_north float32 N/A N/A 1
Longitude Longitude degrees_east float32 N/A N/A 1
mask mask N/A int16 N/A N/A N/A
opt_depth_c1 opt_depth_c1 N/A int16 -32767 N/A 0.0099999997764826
opt_depth_c2 opt_depth_c2 N/A int16 -32767 N/A 0.0099999997764826
opt_depth_x opt_depth_x N/A int16 -32767 N/A 0.0099999997764826
scantime scantime seconds since 1993-01-01 00:00:00 float64 0 N/A N/A
soil_moisture_c1 soil_moisture_c1 percent int16 -32767 N/A 1
soil_moisture_c1_error soil_moisture_c1_error percent int16 -32767 N/A 0.0099999997764826
soil_moisture_c2 soil_moisture_c2 percent int16 -32767 N/A 1
soil_moisture_c2_error soil_moisture_c2_error percent int16 -32767 N/A 0.0099999997764826
soil_moisture_x soil_moisture_x percent int16 -32767 N/A 1
soil_moisture_x_error soil_moisture_x_error percent int16 -32767 N/A 0.0099999997764826
ts ts Kelvin int16 -32767 N/A 0.10000000149012
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