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SMAP L-Band Radiometer Near Real-Time Data

Near real-time soil moisture data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) L-Band Radiometer instrument are available through Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth observation (LANCE).

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) platform measures the amount of water in the surface soil everywhere on Earth. SMAP is designed to measure soil moisture every 2-3 days. 

The availability of SMAP data in near real-time (NRT) supports a variety of users and applications, including tropical cyclone imagery display, data assimilation to numerical weather prediction models, agricultural management/forecasting, short term fire forecasts, risk assessment for landslides, and the identification of saturated soil conditions. NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth observation (LANCE) generally provides SMAP data within 90 to 120 minutes of satellite observation.

SMAP NRT Data Access

To download SMAP NRT data, register for an Earthdata Login. Use the table below to access specific LANCE datasets.

DatasetDescriptionVolume (GB/day)Browse
SPL1BTB_NRTNear Real-time SMAP L1B Radiometer Half-Orbit Time-Ordered Brightness Temperatures1.5Worldview Browse
SPL2SMP_NRTNear Real-time SMAP L2 Radiometer Half-Orbit 36 km EASE-Grid Soil Moisture0.045Worldview Browse

Users can also download SMAP NRT data directly from the SMAP landing page at NASA's National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).

Subscriptions to mailing lists by dataset are available on the respective dataset landing pages.