Terrestrial Hydrosphere Data Access and Tools

NASA data examine many characteristics of the liquid and frozen water and the dynamic processes they are part of across Earth’s landscape. Our datasets and tools help researchers translate these interconnected data points into actionable knowledge.

Dataset	Geographic Region	Temporal Extent	Data Format	Potential Application Areas	Related Subtopics
ALOS PALSAR High Resolution Radiometric Terrain Corrected Product	Global	2006-03-23 to 2011-04-22		Detailed wetland classification and monitoring	glaciers/ ice sheets, surface water
GLDAS Noah Land Surface Model L4 3 hourly 0.25 x 0.25 degree V2.1	Global Land	2000-01-01 to Present	NetCDF	Hydrological cycle research and water resource management Flood forecasting and monitoring	ground water, surface water
GPM IMERG Final Precipitation L3 Half Hourly 0.1 degree x 0.1 degree V07	Global	1998-01-01 to Present	HDF5	High-resolution precipitation monitoring globally Extreme rainfall event detection and analysis Hydrological modeling and flood forecasting	surface water
MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_flx_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Surface Flux Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2T1NXFLX)	Global	1980-01-01 to Present	NetCDF	Surface energy balance studies and monitoring Evaporation and precipitation pattern analysis Hydrological cycle component analysis	snow/ ice
NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Global 1 arc second V003	Global Land	2000-02-11 to 2000-02-21	HGT	Hydrological modeling and watershed delineation Flood risk assessment	surface water
OPERA Surface Displacement from Sentinel-1 validated product (Version 1)	Global	2016-07-01 to Present	NetCDF-4 XML PNG Zarr	Ground subsidence monitoring in urban areas and infrastructure Aquifer depletion impact assessment	glaciers/ ice sheets, ground water
SENTINEL-1A_SLC	Global	2014-04-03 to Present		Interferometric analysis for surface deformation detection Coherence-based change detection Polarimetric analysis for target characterization Development of advanced SAR processing algorithms Time-series analysis for subtle change detection	glaciers/ ice sheets, snow/ ice, surface water
SENTINEL-1B_SLC	Global	2016-04-25 to 2021-12-24		High-resolution deformation mapping with interferometry Coherence analysis for subtle change detection Polarimetric target characterization Glacier velocity measurement and ice monitoring Time-series analysis for seasonal change patterns	glaciers/ ice sheets, snow/ ice, surface water
Sentinel-1C Dual Polarization High Resolution Ground Range Detected Product	Global	2025-01-01 to Present	SAFE	Wetland extent mapping and flood monitoring	glaciers/ ice sheets, surface water

Terrestrial Hydrosphere Datasets

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Dataset Sort descending	Version	Platforms	Instruments	Temporal Extent	Spatial Extent	Spatial Resolution	Data Format
VIIRS/JPSS1 Water Reservoir Monthly L3 Global V002	002	NOAA-20	VIIRS	2018-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF-EOS5
VIIRS/JPSS1+JPSS2 Daily L3 Global Flood Composite 250m Linear Lat Lon Grid - NRT	2	NOAA-20, NOAA-21, Suomi-NPP	VIIRS	2025-04-15 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180	250 Meters x 250 Meters	EOS5
VIIRS/JPSS1+JPSS2 Hourly Cumulative L3 Global Flood Composite 250m Linear Lat Lon Grid - NRT	2	NOAA-20, NOAA-21, Suomi-NPP	VIIRS	2025-04-15 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180	250 Meters x 250 Meters	HDF5
VIIRS/NPP Water Reservoir Area 8-day L3 Global V002	002	Suomi-NPP	VIIRS	2012-01-17 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF-EOS5
VIIRS/NPP Water Reservoir Monthly L3 Global V002	002	Suomi-NPP	VIIRS	2012-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF-EOS5
Water Quality and Spectral Reflectance, Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada, 2010-2011	2	FIELD INVESTIGATION, LABORATORY	SPECTROPHOTOMETERS, SPECTROMETERS, DRIFTING BUOYS, FLUOROMETERS, STEEL MEASURING TAPE, THERMISTORS, TURBIDITY METERS, CONDUCTIVITY METERS, BALANCE	2010-06-21 to 2011-07-06	N: 58.9931 S: 58.3881 E: -110.839 W: -111.928		CSV
Water Security Indicator Model - Global Land Data Assimilation System (WSIM-GLDAS) Monthly Grids, Version 1	1.00	MODELS	Computer	1948-01-01 to 2014-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180	0.25 Decimal Degrees x 0.25 Decimal Degrees	netCDF-4, PDF, PNG
WLDAS Noah-MP 3.6 Land Surface Model L4 Daily 0.01 degree x 0.01 degree Version D1.0 (WLDAS_NOAHMP001_DA1) at GES DISC	D1.0	Noah-MP-LSM	NOT APPLICABLE	1979-01-02	N: 52.925 S: 25.065 E: -89.025 W: -124.925

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Terrestrial Hydrosphere Data Tools

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Tool Sort descending	Description	Services
VEDA	NASA's Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) project is an open-source science cyberinfrastructure for data processing, visualization, exploration, and geographic information systems (GIS) capabilities.	Access, Analysis, Processing, Visualization, Geoprocessing
WISP	The Water Information from Space (WISP) is an interactive dashboard for displaying satellite hydrology data.	Monitoring Natural Events, Visualization
Worldview	Worldview offers the capability to interactively browse over 1,200 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and download the underlying data.	Analysis, Search and Discovery, Visualization, Access, Comparison, Monitoring Natural Events

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Terrestrial Hydrosphere Data Access and Tools

Commonly Used Datasets for Terrestrial Hydrosphere Applications

Terrestrial Hydrosphere Datasets

Terrestrial Hydrosphere Data Tools

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