Soil Moisture, Salinity and Precipitation
This visualization compares weekly soil moisture and sea surface salinity data (over land and water, respectively) from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive Satellite (SMAP) mission [top map] with a precipitation product called Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM, or IMERG [bottom map], from March 31 2015 to March 24, 2019. IMERG is These maps reveal how precipitation amounts influence soil moisture conditions and sea surface salinity. For example, high amounts of precipitation along the equator coincide with relatively moist soil conditions on land (blue shades) and low salinity values in the ocean (green and blue shades). Conversely, areas that receive little or no precipitation, such as the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, coincide with dry soils (dark yellow shades). Scientists can use data from SMAP and IMERG to develop improved flood prediction and drought monitoring capabilities. Societal benefits include improved water-resource management, agricultural productivity, and wildfire and landslide predictions. Data from SMAP also allow us to extend the data record of the highly successful 3-year Aquarius sea surface salinity mission into the future. The images shown here are 8-day averages.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA
Visualizer
- Marit Jentoft-Nilsen (None)
Scientists
- Dara Entekhabi (MIT)
- Jared Entin (NASA/HQ)
- Peggy O'Neill (NASA/GSFC)
- Rajat Bindlish (USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory)
- Simon Yueh (NASA/JPL CalTech)
- Steven Chan (JPL)
Datasets used in this visualization
IMERG
Data CompilationNASA/GSFC
SMAP Salinity (A.K.A. Sea Surface Salinity) (Collected with the Radiometer sensor)
Observed Data
SMAP Level 3 Sea Surface Salinity Standard Mapped Image 8-Day Running Mean V3.0 70km Validated Dataset
Dataset can be found at: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SMAP_RSS_L3_SSS_SMI_8DAY-RUNNINGMEAN_V3_70KM?ids=Platform:ProcessingLevel&values=SMAP:*3*
See more visualizations using this data setSMAP Soil Moisture (Collected with the Radiometer sensor)
Observed DataJPL
Level 3 enhanced daily composite soil moisture
Dataset can be found at: https://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/data/
See more visualizations using this data setNote: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
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