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Description

Smerge-Noah-CCI root zone soil moisture 0-40 cm L4 daily 0.125 x 0.125 degree V2.0 is a multi-decadal root-zone soil moisture product. Smerge is developed by merging the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) land surface model output with surface satellite retrievals from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative. The data have a 0.125 degree resolution at a daily time-step, covering the entire continental United States and spanning nearly four decades (January 1979 to May 2019).

This data product contains root-zone soil moisture of 0 - 40 cm layer, Climate Change Initiative (CCI) derived soil moisture anomalies of 0-40 cm layer, and a soil moisture data estimation flag.

This data product is the recommended replacement for the AMSR-E/Aqua root zone soil moisture L3 1 day 25 km x 25 km descending and 2-Layer Palmer Water Balance Model V001 product (LPRM_AMSRE_D_RZSM3), which will be removed from archive on June 27, 2022. Smerge provides a better root zone soil moisture estimation because it has higher data quality and longer temporal coverage.

Version Description

SMERGE version 2.0 is an improvement of the previous version v1.0 with a DOI as 10.5067/NRJWAMBMN6JD (decommissioned on November 15, 2019). The main differences between SMERGE v1.0 and SMERGE v2.0 are the addition of a new variable, CCI derived soil moisture anomalies of 0-40 cm layer, and an additional year of data for 2016.

Product Summary

Platforms
SMERGE
Instruments
NOT APPLICABLE
Spatial Extent

N: 53 S: 25 E: -67 W: -125

Spatial Resolution
0.125 Decimal Degrees x 0.125 Decimal Degrees
Location
NORTH AMERICA
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
1979-01-02 to 2019-05-10
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
C1569839798-GES_DISC
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
14739
Processing Level
4
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Soil Moisture/Water Content ,
Root Zone Soil Moisture

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

Crow, W., Ars, U., Tobin, K., & Iu, T. A. (2018). Smerge-Noah-CCI root zone soil moisture 0-40 cm L4 daily 0.125 x 0.125 degree V2.0 [Data set]. NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/PAVQY1KHTMUT Date Accessed: 2026-05-28

Documents

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author Topic
Enhancing sub-seasonal soil moisture forecasts through land initialization Duan, Yanan, Kumar, Sanjiv, Maruf, Montasir, Kavoo, Thomas M., Rangwala, Imtiaz, Richter, Jadwiga H., Glanville, Anne A., King, Teagan, Esit, Musa, Raczka, Brett, Raeder, Kevin Geopotential Height, Altitude, Surface Temperature, Skin Temperature, Upper Air Temperature, Dew Point Temperature, Air Temperature, Cloud Top Temperature, Atmospheric Winds, Surface Winds, U/V Wind Components, Upper Level Winds, U/V Wind Components, Vertical Wind Velocity/Speed, Atmospheric Pressure, Sea Level Pressure, Cloud Top Pressure, Sea Level Pressure, Surface Pressure, Specific Humidity, Total Precipitable Water, Cloud Liquid Water/Ice, Atmospheric Water Vapor, Atmospheric Ozone, Oxygen Compounds, Boundary Layer Winds, Total Ozone, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Causal Discovery Analysis Reveals Global Sources of Predictability for Kumar, Sudhanshu, Tian, Di Heat Flux, Air Temperature, Skin Temperature, Specific Humidity, Water Vapor, Precipitation Rate, Snow/Ice, Evaporation, Latent Heat Flux, Latent Heat Flux, Sensible Heat Flux, Diffusion, Surface Winds, Wind Speed, U/V Wind Components, Wind Stress, Wind Stress, Surface Roughness, Planetary Boundary Layer Height, Ice Fraction, Geopotential Height, Altitude, Surface Temperature, Upper Air Temperature, Dew Point Temperature, Cloud Top Temperature, Atmospheric Winds, Surface Winds, Upper Level Winds, U/V Wind Components, Vertical Wind Velocity/Speed, Atmospheric Pressure, Sea Level Pressure, Cloud Top Pressure, Sea Level Pressure, Surface Pressure, Total Precipitable Water, Cloud Liquid Water/Ice, Atmospheric Water Vapor, Atmospheric Ozone, Oxygen Compounds, Boundary Layer Winds, Total Ozone, Vertical Profiles, Ozone Profiles, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Accurate statistical seasonal streamflow forecasts developed by incorporating remote sensing soil moisture and terrestrial water storage anomaly information Wang, Mingxiu, Wyatt, Briana M., Ochsner, Tyson E. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
A Joint Approach Combining Correlation and Mutual Information to Study Land and Ocean Drivers of US Droughts: Methodology Shin, Chul-Su, Dirmeyer, Paul A., Huang, Bohua Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Seeing the Disturbed Forest for the Trees: Remote Sensing Is Hwang, Kyotaek, Harpold, Adrian A., Tague, Christina L., Lowman, Lauren, Boisrame, Gabrielle F. S., Lininger, Katherine B., Sullivan, Pamela L., Manning, Aidan, Graup, Louis, Litvak, Marcy, Lewis, Gabriel, Miller, Kate, Brooks, Paul D., Barnard, Holly R. Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture, Canopy Characteristics, Biomass
Unraveling phenological responses to extreme drought and implications for water and carbon budgets Corak, Nicholas K., Otkin, Jason A., Ford, Trent W., Lowman, Lauren E. L. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Heat Flux, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Evaporation, Evapotranspiration, Rain, Snow, Canopy Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Soil Temperature, Albedo, Land Surface Temperature, Snow Water Equivalent, Runoff
Machine Learning Downscaling of SoilMERGE in the United States Southern Great Plains Tobin, Kenneth, Sanchez, Aaron, Esparza, Daniela, Garcia, Miguel, Ganta, Deepak, Bennett, Marvin Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), Soil Moisture, and El Nino Southern Oscillation in California and Arizona Tobin, Kenneth J., Pokharel, Sugam, Bennett, Marvin E. Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture, Heat Flux, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Evaporation, Evapotranspiration, Rain, Snow, Canopy Characteristics, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Soil Temperature, Albedo, Land Surface Temperature, Snow Water Equivalent, Runoff
Unraveling the Relationship Between Tropical Storms and Agricultural Drought Song, J. Y., Abbaszadeh, P., Deb, P., Moradkhani, H. Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Trends, variability, and drivers of flash droughts in the contiguous United States Lesinger, Kyle, Tian, Di Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Ambiguous agricultural drought: Characterising soil moisture and vegetation droughts in europe from earth observation van Hateren, Theresa C., Chini, Marco, Matgen, Patrick, Teuling, Adriaan J. Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Precipitation, Precipitation Amount, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Rain, Land Surface/Agriculture Indicators, Drought Indices, Satellite Soil Moisture Index, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Root Zone Soil Moisture Comparisons: AirMOSS, SMERGE, and SMAP Tobin, Kenneth J., Crow, Wade T., Bennett, Marvin E. Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Heat Flux, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Evaporation, Evapotranspiration, Rain, Snow, Canopy Characteristics, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Soil Temperature, Albedo, Land Surface Temperature, Snow Water Equivalent, Runoff
Sensitivity of US drought prediction skill to land initial states Shin, Chul-Su, Huang, Bohua, Dirmeyer, Paul A., Halder, Subhadeep, Kumar, Arun Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
Potential reemergence of seasonal soil moisture anomalies in North America Kumar, Sanjiv, Newman, Matthew, Wang, Yan, Livneh, Ben Soil Moisture/Water Content, Root Zone Soil Moisture
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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
CCI_ano CCI_ano m3/m3 float64 9999.9 N/A N/A N/A
lat lat degrees_north float64 N/A N/A N/A N/A
lon lon degrees_east float64 N/A N/A N/A N/A
RZSM RZSM m3/m3 float64 9999.9 N/A N/A N/A
smflag smflag N/A int8 127 N/A N/A N/A
time time days since 1979-01-01 00:00:00 float64 N/A N/A N/A N/A
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