How much carbon plants take in or release (SMAP, daily, 9 km)

In plain English

What it measures. Daily estimates of how much carbon dioxide land ecosystems pull in or give off, on a roughly 9-km global grid. A positive or negative balance shows whether plants and soils acted as a carbon sink or source.

How it's made. Calculated by a carbon model that combines SMAP soil-moisture readings with vegetation data from MODIS and VIIRS and a NASA weather model, rather than a single direct measurement.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists track how forests, grasslands, and farms breathe carbon in and out, supporting climate and carbon-budget studies.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SOILS › SOIL PRODUCTIVITY › GROSS PRIMARY PRODUCTION (GPP)LAND SURFACE › SOILS › SOIL RESPIRATION › HETEROTROPHIC RESPIRATION (Rh)LAND SURFACE › SOILS › CARBON › NET ECOSYSTEM CO2 EXCHANGE (NEE)LAND SURFACE › SOILS › CARBON › SOIL ORGANIC CARBON (SOC)

Coverage & cadence

Time span2015-03-31 → ongoing
Measured byAqua (MODIS) · GEOS-5 (NOT APPLICABLE) · L4_C (NOT APPLICABLE) · SMAP (SMAP L-BAND RADIOMETER) · Suomi-NPP (VIIRS) · Terra (MODIS)
Processing levelLevel 4
Spatial extent-180, -85.044, 180, 85.044
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

The Level-4 (L4) carbon product (SPL4CMDL) provides global gridded daily estimates of net ecosystem carbon (CO2) exchange derived using a satellite data based terrestrial carbon flux model informed by the following: Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) L-band microwave observations, land cover and vegetation inputs from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) land model assimilation system. Parameters are computed using an Earth-fixed, global cylindrical 9 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid, Version 2.0 (EASE-Grid 2.0) projection.

Get the data

spl4cmdl_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SPL4CMDL",
    version="008",
    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.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links