The Data Access Portal has information in 3 columns. An outline of the content in these columns is provided above. When first entering the search interface, all potential datasets are listed. Datasets are indicated in the map and results tabulation elements which are located in the middle column. The order of results can be modified using the "Sort by" option in the left column. On top of this column is normally relevant guidance information to user presented as collapsible elements.
If the user want to refine the search, this can be done by constraining the bounding box search. This is done in the map - the listing of datasets is automatically updated. Date constraints can be added in the left column. For these to take effect, the user has to push the button marked search. In the left column it is also possible to specific text elements to search for in the datasets. Again pushing the button marked "Search" is necessary for these to take action. Complex search patterns can be constructed by changing the operators used in the text field and prefixing words with '+' and '-' to indicate whether they have to be present or should not be present in the results.
Other elements indicated in the left and right columns are facet searches, i.e. these are keywords that are found in the datasets and all datasets that contain these specific keywords in the appropriate metadata elements are listed together. Further refinement can be done using full text, date or bounding box constraints. Individuals, organisations and data centres involved in generating or curating the datasets are listed in the facets in the right column.
Citation of data and service
If you use data retrieved through this portal, please acknowledge the efforts of the data portal and the data centres contributing.
The information required to properly cite a dataset is normally provided in the discovery metadata the datasets.
author,
title,
year of publication,
publisher (for data this is often the archive where it is housed),
edition or version,
access information (a URL or persistent identifier, e.g. DOI if provided)
This data set provides brightness temperature data acquired during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 (SMEX03) by the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I).
Notice to Data Users: The documentation for this data set was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed, thoroughly reviewed, or edited by NSIDC. Thus, support for this data set may be limited.
This data set contains Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) Level-3 daily measurements of surface soil moisture and temperatures.
This enhanced Level-2 (L2) product contains calibrated, geolocated, brightness temperatures acquired by the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer during 6:00 a.m. descending and 6:00 p.m. ascending half-orbit passes. This product is derived from SMAP Level-1B (L1B) interpolated antenna temperatures. Backus-Gilbert optimal interpolation techniques are used to extract maximum information from SMAP antenna temperatures and convert them to brightness temperatures, which are posted to the 9 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid, Version 2.0 (EASE-Grid 2.0) in a global cylindrical projection [available as the SPl1CTB_E product]. As of 2021, the data are also posted to the Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid 2.0, an azimuthal equal-area projection. These 9-km brightness temperatures are then used to retrieve surface soil moisture posted on the 9-km grid [this SPL2SMP_E product].
This data set contains soil moisture data obtained by the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) aircraft instrument. The data were collected as part of SMAPVEX12, the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2012.
This data set contains Level-2 global soil moisture estimates derived from the NASA Aquarius passive microwave radiometer on the Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC-D).
As of 31 August 2022, this data set is retired and no longer available for download. We recommend using <a href="https://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0630">MEaSUREs Calibrated Enhanced-Resolution Passive Microwave Daily EASE-Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperature ESDR, Version 1</a> data set as an alternative. This data set provides daily, near-real-time Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) brightness temperatures in the Equal-Area Scalable Earth-Grid (EASE-Grid). The data set consists of gridded data in two projections: Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. The data lag by one day and provide 365 days of near-real-time data. The spatial resolution is 25 km for all channels. Data are contained in flat binary files.
This data set contains calibrated sensor measurements acquired by the Passive and Active L- and S-band (PALS) airborne microwave sensor during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX02).
This data set contains brightness temperatures obtained by the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) aircraft instrument. The data were collected as part of SMAPVEX15, the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2015.
This enhanced Level-3 (L3) soil moisture product provides a composite of daily estimates of global land surface conditions retrieved by the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer. This product is a daily composite of SMAP Level-2 (L2) soil moisture which is derived from SMAP Level-1C (L1C) interpolated brightness temperatures. Backus-Gilbert optimal interpolation techniques are used to extract information from SMAP antenna temperatures and convert them to brightness temperatures, which are posted to the 9 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid, Version 2.0 (EASE-Grid 2.0) in a global cylindrical projection. As of 2021, the data are also posted to the Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid 2.0, an azimuthal equal-area projection.
Notice to Data Users: The documentation for this data set was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed, thoroughly reviewed, or edited by NSIDC. Thus, support for this data set may be limited.
This data set contains Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) Level-3 daily measurements of surface soil moisture and vegetation/roughness water content interpretive information, as well as brightness temperatures and quality control variables.
This data set contains brightness temperature data obtained by the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) microwave aircraft radiometer instrument as part of the Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign 2007 (CLASIC07).
This data set consists of surface-based radiometer (SBR) brightness temperatures of the snow surface and vegetation at Grand Mesa, CO, USA, acquired during NASA's 2017 SnowEx campaign. Four SBRs were deployed in the field and obtained measurements at 89, 37, 19, and 10.67 GHz in both vertical (V-pol) and horizontal (H-pol) polarizations. Data are available for 37 locations across Grand Mesa collected over five days in February, 2017. They include both 2-4 minute observations and 20 minute, continuous measurements during surface melt, with the latter designed to capture the brightness temperature increase caused by the presence of liquid water in the snow.
This data set also contains snowfork measurements of snow wetness for 13 sites.
The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) instrument on the NASA EOS Aqua satellite provides global passive microwave measurements of the Earth. NSIDC produces AMSR-E gridded brightness temperature data by interpolating AMSR-E data (6.9 GHz, 10.7 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, and 89.0 GHz) to the output grids from swath space using an inverse-distance squared method. AMSR-E/Aqua L2A Global Swath Spatially-Resampled Brightness Temperatures (AE_L2A) input source data are used to create the gridded brightness temperature data.
NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Program, Earth Science Information Partners Program, Earth Observing System Data Information System (NOAA/NASA PATHFINDER, ESIP, EOSDIS)
The Nimbus-7 SMMR Pathfinder Brightness Temperatures data set contains global brightness temperatures in swath format (level 1b) from 25 October 1978 to 20 August 1987. The instrument obtained near-global coverage at five frequencies (6.6, 10.7, 18, 21, and 37 GHz) in both horizontal and vertical polarizations, at a constant incidence angle of 50.3 degrees, every six days. Data are stored as daily orbit files in compressed Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) and are available on FTP.
The Nimbus-7 SMMR Level 1B Pathfinder data set was created at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from a level 1A 'TAT' data set provided by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GFSC). The SMMR operated continuously from 25 Oct 1978 through 16 November 1987, at which time it began alernate-day operation. The processed level 1B SMMR data are stored as orbit files in HDF format. Each level 1B orbit file covers a time period of approximately 104.16 minutes. The file size for an uncompressed orbit file is approximately 4.3 megabytes. The total volume of the level 1B data set is approximately 70 gigabytes (compressed).