Delta Hydro

SMAP

Active

NASA's L-band radiometer soil moisture mission — 9km/36km near-surface moisture, daily, since 2015.

by NASA / NSIDC

Pricing
Gov-Public
License
US Government (public domain)
Commercial use
Permitted
Ecosystem
Google Earth Engine, Python
Platform
Windows, macOS, Linux

About SMAP

SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) measures near-surface (top ~5cm) soil moisture globally using an L-band radiometer, distributed through NSIDC at 9km (enhanced) and 36km resolution with roughly 2-3 day repeat coverage since 2015. An L4 product adds a model-based root-zone soil moisture estimate for users needing depth beyond the radiometer's shallow sensing.

It is the reference satellite soil-moisture mission for drought monitoring, irrigation scheduling and antecedent-moisture inputs to event-based rainfall-runoff models, with a data record now long enough for trend analysis.

Where it fits in the workflow

TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting

Alternatives to SMAP

Other data, monitoring & forecasting tools covering similar workflow stages.

Near-real-time scatterometer soil moisture from EUMETSAT — hours of latency, useful for operational monitoring.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveSatellite Soil Moisture DataStreamflow Forecasting

Caravan

Open Source

The open global large-sample hydrology dataset — thousands of catchments with forcing, attributes and streamflow.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveStreamflow DataRainfall Data

Deltares' operational forecasting platform — the shell running national flood-forecast centres worldwide.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveStreamflow ForecastingFlood Mapping

ECMWF's hourly global reanalysis — the default gap-free climate forcing record for ungauged catchments worldwide.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveClimate Reanalysis DataRainfall Data

The longest satellite soil moisture record available — merged active+passive retrievals back to 1978, free, no login.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveSatellite Soil Moisture DataDrought Analysis

Monthly total water storage change from satellite gravity — the only direct signal of large-scale groundwater depletion.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveGRACE Water Storage DataGroundwater Modelling