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Description

AMSR2/GCOM-W1 surface soil moisture (LPRM) L3 1 day 10 km x 10 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 Downscaled Level 2 product, LPRM_AMSR2_DS_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
C1235316218-GES_DISC
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
4989
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 10 km x 10 km ascending V001 [Data set]. NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/B0GHODHJLDA8 Date Accessed: 2026-03-15

Documents

READ-ME

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

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