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	Version Sort ascending	Platforms	Instruments	Temporal Extent	Spatial Extent	Spatial Resolution	Data Format
MODIS/Aqua Water Reservoir 8-Day L3 Global V061	061	Aqua	MODIS	2002-07-04 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF-EOS2
MODIS/Aqua Water Reservoir Monthly L3 Global V061	061	Aqua	MODIS	2002-07-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF-EOS2
MODIS/Terra Land Water Mask Derived from MODIS and SRTM L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V061	061	Terra	MODIS	2000-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180	250 Meters x 250 Meters	HDF-EOS2
MODIS/Terra Water Reservoir 8-Day L3 Global V061	061	Terra	MODIS	2000-02-26 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF4
MODIS/Terra Water Reservoir Monthly L3 Global V061	061	Terra	MODIS	2000-03-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF4
GLAS/ICESat L2 Global Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet Altimetry Data (HDF5) V034	034	ICESat	ALTIMETERS, CD, GLAS, GPS, GPS Receiver, LA, PC	2003-02-20 to 2009-10-11	N: 86 S: -86 E: 180 W: -180	60 Meters to 70 Meters x 60 Meters to 70 Meters	HDF
ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data V007	007	ICESat-2	ATLAS	2018-10-13 to Present	N: 88 S: -88 E: 180 W: -180		HDF5
ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data Quick Look V007	007	ICESat-2	ATLAS	2025-06-07 to Present	N: 88 S: -88 E: 180 W: -180		HDF5
ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data Quick Look V007	007	ICESat-2	ATLAS	2025-06-07 to Present	N: 88 S: -88 E: 180 W: -180		HDF5
ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data V006	006	ICESat-2	ATLAS	2018-10-13 to 2025-03-02	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		HDF5

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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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