SMAP Science Data Products

Abstract:

NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will retrieve global surface soil moisture and freeze/thaw state based on measurements acquired by remote sensing instruments that fly on an Earth orbiting satellite. The SMAP observatory will launch no earlier than January 8, 2015 into a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit. The SMAP instrument suite includes a radiometer and synthetic aperture radar. This paper will describe the Science Data System (SDS) that will process the SMAP raw data into higher-level products. SMAP data products will provide calibrated radar backscatter and radiometer brightness temperatures, derived geophysical parameters in the form of soil moisture and freeze/thaw states, daily maps of these geophysical parameters, as well as modeled analyses of global soil moisture and carbon flux in Boreal regions. The SDS is a fully automated system that will process the incoming raw data from the instruments, incorporate spacecraft and instrument engineering data, and use both dynamic and static ancillary products from the scientific community. The SDS will produce 14 standard data product processors. This paper will discuss the standard data products, their format, metadata, quality assessment products, as well as the planned release dates for the products both Beta and Validated quality. The standard data products will appear in Hierarchical Data Format-5 (HDF5) format. The products will contain metadata that conform to the ISO 19115 standard. The Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) will host and distribute SMAP Radar data, while the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) will host and distribute all other SMAP products.