Soil Moisture

Soil moisture is an important variable in land–atmosphere feedbacks at both weather and climate timescales. It plays a major role in partitioning the incoming radiation flux onto the land into fluxes of latent and sensible heat from the land to the atmosphere, and in separating precipitation into runoff, subsurface flow, and infiltration. Soil moisture is intimately involved in the feedback between climate and vegetation, as both local climate and vegetation influence soil moisture through evapotranspiration, while soil moisture is a determinant of the type and condition of vegetation in a region. Changes in soil moisture can accordingly have substantial impacts on agricultural productivity, forestry and ecosystem health.

Large spatial and temporal variability

Figure: Anomalies from the long term mean in ESA CCI soil moisture in the years 2016 (left) and 2017 (right)

ECV Products and Requirements

These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).

The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Soil Moisture.

Products			Surface Soil Moisture		Freeze/Thaw		Surface Inundation		Root Zone Soil Moisture
	*()**	Unit	Values	Unit	Values	Unit	Values	Unit	Values
Horizontal Resolution	G	km	1	Km	1	Km	1	km	1
	B		10		10		10		10
	T		50		50		50		50
Vertical Resolution	G		-		-		-	cm	10
	B		-		-		-		50
	T		-		-		-		100
Temporal Resolution	G	h	6	h	6	h	6	h	6
	B		24		24		24		24
	T		48		48		48		48
Timeliness	G	h	3	h	3	h	3	month	0.25
	B		6		6		6		1
	T		48		48		48		12
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma)	G	m³ m^-3	0.03	%	98	%	98	m³ m^-3	0.03
	B		0.04		95		95		0.04
	T		0.08		90		90		0.08
Stability	G	m³m^-3 / decade	0.005		-		-	m³ m^-3	0.005
	B		0.01		-		-		0.01
	T		0.02		-		-		0.02

(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful.

Data sources

This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the abombelliwmo [dot] int (GCOS Secretariat).

ESA Climate Change Initiative for Soil Moisture
Copernicus Climate Change Service
International Soil Moisture Network
Soil Moisture Active Passive mission (NASA)
Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity mission (ESA)
Satellite ECV Inventory by the CEOS/CGMS Working Group on Climate (WGClimate)

Domain:

Land

Subdomain:

Hydrology

Scientific Area:

Hydrosphere

ECV Steward:

Wouter Dorigo

Products:

Surface Soil Moisture, Freeze/Thaw, Surface Inundation, Root Zone Soil Moisture