{ "culture": "en-US", "name": "lis_rsm_conus", "guid": "", "catalogPath": "", "snippet": "Land Information System (LIS) CONUS Relative Soil Moisture 0-10 cm, Updated Daily", "description": "
Update Frequency: <\/span><\/p> Daily; hourly frequency available natively and on the SPoRT-LIS Viewer page, linked below.<\/span><\/p> Summary:<\/span><\/p> Land Information System (LIS) 0-10 cm layer Relative Soil Moisture (RSM) generated by the NASA SPoRT Center over a Contiguous United States domain.<\/span><\/p> The NASA Land Information System (LIS) is a high-performance land surface modeling and data assimilation system used to characterize land surface states and fluxes by integrating satellite-derived datasets, ground-based observations, and model re-analyses. The NASA SPoRT Center at MSFC developed a real-time configuration of the LIS (\u201cSPoRT-LIS\u201d), which is designed for use in experimental operations by domestic and international users. SPoRT-LIS is an observations-driven, historical and real-time modeling setup that runs the Noah land surface model over a full CONUS domain. It provides soil moisture estimates at approximately 3-km horizontal grid spacing over a 2-meter-deep soil column and has been validated for regional applications and against U.S. Drought Monitor products.<\/span><\/p> SPoRT-LIS consists of a 33-year soil moisture climatology spanning from 1981 to 2013, which is extended to the present time and forced by atmospheric analyses from the operational North American Land Data Assimilation System-Phase 2 through 4 days prior to the current time, and by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Global Data Assimilation System in combination with hourly Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor precipitation estimates from 4 days ago to the present time. A unique feature of SPoRT-LIS is the incorporation of daily, real-time satellite retrievals of VIIRS Green Vegetation Fraction since 2012, which results in more representative evapotranspiration and ultimately soil moisture estimates than using a fixed seasonal depiction of vegetation in the model. <\/span><\/p> The 33-year soil moisture climatology also provides the database for real-time soil moisture percentiles evaluated for all U.S. counties and at each modeled grid point. The present-day soil moisture analyses are compared to daily historical distributions to determine the soil wet/dry anomalies for the specific day of the year. Soil moisture percentile maps are constructed for the model layers, and these data are frequently referenced by scientists and operational agencies contributing to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor product. <\/span><\/p> Suggested Use:<\/span><\/p> This product can be used for drought assessment, fire risk assessment, potential for flooding hazards associated with heavy precipitation and near-saturated RSM. <\/span><\/p> RSM is shown using a Classified Color Ramp (Multi-Color, 20-classes). Values represent soil moisture scaled from 0% (wilting point; the lowest possible value) to 100% (full saturation) at each grid point.<\/span><\/p> Data Caveats:<\/span><\/p> The SPoRT-LIS is as good as the input forcing analyses, so occasional soil moisture artifacts may appear in the horizontal maps related to quality-control issues of the input datasets. <\/span><\/p> Data Interpretation and Visualization:<\/span><\/p> The relative soil moisture (RSM), is defined as the ratio of the modeled volumetric soil moisture between the wilting and saturation reference values for a given soil classification. The RSM represents the percent saturation of the soils, similar to how relative humidity measures the percent saturation of water vapor in the air. The RSM essentially normalizes the volumetric soil moisture based on the specified characteristics of each unique soil texture classification (sand-silt-clay composition).<\/span><\/p> Further Reference:<\/span><\/p> NASA SPoRT project page: <\/span>https://weather.ndc.nasa.gov/sport/ <\/span><\/a><\/p> Real-time SPoRT-LIS viewer: <\/span>https://weather.ndc.nasa.gov/sport/viewer/?dataset=lis_conus&product=rsoim0-100 <\/span><\/a><\/p> Access to real-time rolling archive of digital data and in various formats: <\/span>https://geo.nsstc.nasa.gov/SPoRT/modeling/lis/conus3km/<\/span><\/a><\/p> Daily animations of experimental 2-week forecasts of SPoRT-LIS soil moisture percentiles: <\/span>https://geo.nsstc.nasa.gov/SPoRT/modeling/lis/conus3km/forecasts/<\/span><\/a><\/p> NASA Land Information System project page: <\/span>https://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov/<\/span><\/a><\/p>