Soil moisture data from NASA's Aquarius microwave radiometer on the Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC-D) platform are now available at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The L-band horizontally polarized brightness temperature observations used in the Aquarius soil moisture algorithm provide a higher sensitivity to soil moisture compared to the vertically polarized observations, according to Principal Investigators Rajat Bindlish and Thomas Jackson.Aquarius/SAC-D soil moisture data sets available at NSIDC include:

• Level-2 swath single orbit soil moisture
• Level-3 gridded 1-degree daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and annual soil moisture

To access data ordering options, documentation, and tools, please see NSIDC's Aquarius Web site.