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Full catalog/NSIDC-0738
NSIDC-0738·v2·dataset

Microwave glow of Earth's surface, twice daily (SMAP radiometer)

SMAP Radiometer Twice-Daily rSIR-Enhanced EASE-Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperatures V002
land NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Twice-daily maps of the natural microwave glow given off by Earth's surface, sharpened to finer detail. This brightness reveals clues about surface conditions like wetness and ice.

How it's made. Built from measurements by the radiometer on NASA's SMAP satellite, processed with a technique that enhances the resolution onto several grid sizes.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational measurement used to study soil moisture, snow, and ice, and to extend a long-term record matched to earlier microwave sensors.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › MICROWAVE › BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2015-03-31 → 2022-12-31
  • Measured bySMAP (SMAP L-BAND RADIOMETER)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

This data set contains twice-daily, enhanced-resolution brightness temperature data derived from the SMAP radiometer. Data are available on the Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, Temperate, and Mid-Latitude (sub-set of Global) EASE-Grid 2.0 projections and on the 3 km, 3.125 km, 9 km, 25 km, and 36 km resolution grids. This data set applies the same SIR technique used to derive brightness temperatures from the SMMR, AMSR-E, and SSM/I-SSMIS sensors and is a companion product for the MEaSUREs Calibrated Enhanced-Resolution Passive Microwave Daily EASE-Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperature ESDR data set (DOI: 10.5067/MEASURES/CRYOSPHERE/NSIDC-0630.001).

Get the data

nsidc-0738_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NSIDC-0738",
    version="2",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.