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Full catalog/SMAP_L4_C_ANC_SOC_RST
SMAP_L4_C_ANC_SOC_RST·v1·dataset

Carbon stored in soil (helper file for SMAP model)

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) L4 Carbon Ancillary Soil Organic Carbon Restart File V001
land NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level NA active HDF5
In plain English

What it measures. Stores the amount of carbon held in soil at the start of each year, expressed as how much is packed into a given area of land.

How it's made. A yearly 'restart' helper file for the SMAP mission's carbon model, providing the starting point the model needs rather than a direct observation.

How & where you'd use it. A behind-the-scenes building-block file: the model uses it to calculate day-by-day soil carbon as material is added and decays, so most users encounter its effects through the model's output rather than the file itself.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SOILS › CARBON › SOIL ORGANIC CARBON (SOC)

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2015-01-31 → ongoing
  • Measured byNOT APPLICABLE (NOT APPLICABLE)
  • Processing levelLevel NA
  • Spatial extent-180, -86.4, 180, 86.4
  • FormatsHDF5
  • StatusACTIVE

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 ancillary SMAP product contains the yearly soil organic carbon (SOC) restart file. This file contains the area density of SOC at the start of the year, which is used to calculate daily SOC based on defined deposition and decay rates.

Get the data

smap_l4_c_anc_soc_rst_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SMAP_L4_C_ANC_SOC_RST",
    version="1",
    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.