Global maps of soil moisture "EMPOWER IAS"

News:

• New satellite-based, weekly global maps of soil moisture and groundwater wetness conditions developed by US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) 

 

How were these maps produced?

• Data available from NASA and German Research Center for Geosciences’ Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On (GRACE-FO) satellites were used to derive these global maps.
• The satellite-based observations of changes in water distribution were integrated with other data within a computer model that simulated water and energy cycles.
• The model then produced — among other outputs — time-varying maps of the distribution of water at three depths: Surface soil moisture, root zone soil moisture (roughly the top three feet of soil) and shallow groundwater.
• The maps have a resolution of up to 8.5 miles, providing continuous data on moisture and groundwater conditions across the landscape.

 

About GRACE- FO mission:

• The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) mission is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
• GRACE-FO is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which began orbiting Earth on March 17, 2002. The GRACE missions measure variations in gravity over Earth’s surface, producing a new map of the gravity field every 30 days.