AMSR Soil Moisture Content (SMC) and Vegetation Water Content (VWC) based on the Land Data Assimilation Methodology

Name: Soil Moisture Content (SMC) and Vegetation Water Content (VWC) based on the Land Data Assimilation Methodology
Creator: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Published: 2002-06-01
License: http://earth.jaxa.jp/policy/en.html

DOI: 10.57746/EO.01j27yxxx93xzhgxkcz9vt2z15
Last Updated: 2024-07-08

Product Summary

This product includes soil moisture content (SMC) at five depths and the vegetation water content (VWC) based on the land reanalysis data (ECHLA: ECoHydrological Land reAnalysis) using the land data assimilation system (CLVDAS: Coupled Land and Vegetation Data Assimilation System) developed by Associate Professor Yohei Sawada of the University of Tokyo.
The ECHLA data is derived using microwave brightness temperature data from the AMSR-E and AMSR2 sensors onboard Aqua and GCOM-W. Aqua and GCOM-W are Sun-synchronous sub-recurrent Orbit satellites launched on May 4, 2002, and May 18, 2012, respectively. The AMSR-E and the AMSR2 are multi-channel microwave radiometers with a swath of 1450 km and 1617km, respectively.
There are two data periods in the ECHLA data. The first period is from June 2002 to October 2011, when the data is generated by assimilating AMSR-E brightness temperature observations. The second period is from July 2012 to December 2021, when AMSR2 brightness temperature observations are used for data assimilation. Since there were no observations from AMSR-series satellites from October 2011 to July 2012, no ECHLA data are currently provided during this period. The ensemble mean of SMC, VWC, and LAI is publicly available. The volumetric moisture content of the original 20 layers is available. The 20 soil layers are aggregated into five layers, which are 0-5 cm, 5-15 cm, 15-45 cm, 45-105 cm, and 105-195 cm soil depths.
The provided format is NetCDF-4. The target area is snow-free global land. The dataset's spatial resolution is 0.25 degrees (gird node registration, 1441x721). The projection method is EQR (0.25-degree Grid points data). The generation unit is Daily. The dataset also includes QA_Flag data with the same spatial resolution as the auxiliary data. The current version of the product is Version 1.

Platform: Model
Sensor: N/A

Coverage

Temporal Coverage

AMSR-E: 2002-06-01 to 2011-10-04
AMSR2: 2012-07-03 to 2021-12-31

Spatial Coverage

Bounding Rectangle
(90.0°, -180.0°, -90.0°, 180.0°)
(Snow-free global land area)

Resolution

0.25 deg

Location

GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL LAND

Dataset Short Name

AMSR_L3_LDA

Platform / Sensor

Model / N/A

Coverage

Spatial Coverage: Bounding Rectangle
(90.0°, -180.0°, -90.0°, 180.0°)
(Snow-free global land area)
Temporal Coverage: AMSR-E: 2002-06-01 to 2011-10-04
AMSR2: 2012-07-03 to 2021-12-31

Product Level ID

Version Description

Ver. 1.0, 2024-03-25, Available

File Format

netCDF-4

Dataset Type

Daily / Global

Resolution

Spatial Resolution: 0.25 deg (gird node registration, 1441x721)
Temporal Resolution: Daily

Dataset Progress

In Work

Projection

EQR, Grid node

Collection Data Type

SCIENCE_QUALITY

Get Data: The GCOM-W Research Product Distribution Service
Dataset Title: AMSR Soil Moisture Content (SMC) and Vegetation Water Content (VWC) based on the Land Data Assimilation Methodology
Distribution Format: netCDF-4
Fees: Free
Citation: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. 2002. AMSR Soil Moisture Content (SMC) and Vegetation Water Content (VWC) based on the Land Data Assimilation Methodology. https://doi.org/10.57746/EO.01j27yxxx93xzhgxkcz9vt2z15
Access Constraints: No constraints but users need to be registered with the GCOM-W Research Product Distribution Service to download files.
Use Constraints: The GCOM-W Research Product Distribution Service provides research products derived from data obtained by AMSR2 onboard GCOM-W1, and AMSR-E onboard Aqua with free of charge. Terms of Use of the Service are terms and conditions that users are expected to follow in the use of the Service. Please read the terms and conditions at the following URL carefully and agree on them before the use of the Service.
The GCOM-W Research Product Distribution Service Terms of service: https://suzaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GCOM_W/research/terms.html

ISO Topic Categories

ENVIRONMENT
GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
IMAGERY/BASE MAPS/EARTH COVER

Science Keywords

EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > SOILS > SOIL MOISTURE/WATER CONTENT > SURFACE SOIL MOISTURE
EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION > PLANT CHARACTERISTICS > VEGETATION WATER CONTENT
EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION > VEGETATION INDEX > LEAF AREA INDEX (LAI)
EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES > MODELS > EARTH SCIENCE REANALYSES/ASSIMILATION MODELS

Location Keywords

GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL LAND

ECV and other Keywords

Soil moisture
Leaf area index
ECHLA

ISO Topic Categories is the keywords in the ISO 19115 - Geographic Information Metadata.

Science Keywords hosts Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords which are a hierarchical set of controlled Earth Science vocabularies that help ensure Earth science data, services, and variables are described in a consistent and comprehensive manner and allow for the precise searching of metadata and subsequent retrieval of data, services, and variables.

ECV Keywords hosts a physical, chemical or biological variable or a group of linked variables that critically contributes to the characterization of Earth's climate.