9 janvier 2025
New upgrade to the ESA CCI Soil Moisture Dataset (version 09.1)
latest dataset offers temporal extension and end-end uncertainty budget
Where hard work pays off: ESA’s CCI SM team has released the latest and upgraded iteration of the ESA Climate Change Initiative’s (CCI) soil moisture data product, version v09.1.
Derived by merging data from multiple satellite missions, the new version continues on-going improvement to the three component datasets: ACTIVE and PASSIVE products based on merged scatterometer and radiometer soil moisture observations, and a “COMBINED” product.
This latest upgrade extends temporal coverage being extended to the end of 2023 as part of an upgrade to the already globally consistent daily record of surface soil moisture to further support climate studies and assessments. The Passive and Combined products now span over 40 years (1978-2023) with the active dataset covering 1991-2023.
Other improvements include enhanced merging of brightness temperatures for the PASSIVE product; an updated rescaling methodology in the COMBINED product; and for the first time, the dataset provides an end-to-end uncertainty budget. These improvements enhance the dataset's accuracy and reliability for climate research and environmental applications.
Underlining the data the maturity and reliability of these products, previous iterations of these data products have been cited in numerous climate assessments including the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and state of the climate reports produced by Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) and C3S. The data also contribute to a range of applications across broad set of sectors including disaster monitoring, energy, health, and climate applications including drought monitoring, heatwave and flood forecasting, and assessing changes in agricultural productivity.
The data products (ESA CCI SM v09.1) are free and open access and provided in NetCDF-4 classic format, adhering to the latest climate data standards and best practices for forecasting.
Reference
Dorigo, W.; Preimesberger, W.; Hahn, S.; Van der Schalie, R.; De Jeu, R.; Kidd, R.; Rodriguez-Fernandez, N.; Hirschi, M.; Stradiotti, P.; Frederikse, T.; Gruber, A.; Duchemin, D. (2024): ESA Soil Moisture Climate Change Initiative (Soil_Moisture_cci): Version 09.1 data collection. NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, date of citation. http://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/779f116d0477439db1874592add5848c/