NASA SPoRT-LiS Soil Moisture Products
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Short-term Prediction and Transition Center (SPoRT)
NASA’s Short-term Prediction and Transition Center – Land Information System (SPoRT-LIS) provides high-resolution (about 3-km) gridded soil moisture products in real-time to support regional and local modeling and improve situational awareness. The LIS soil moisture product is a long-term run of the Noah land surface model (LSM) that began on June 1, 2010, and is updated every 6 hours in real-time. The SPoRT-LIS provides unique, real-time soil moisture information at relatively high resolution (~3 km) compared to other operational sources. SPoRT-LIS is driven by input atmospheric analyses from the NCEP/EMC North American Land Data Assimilation System phase 2 (NLDAS-2) and Stage IV precipitation, and incorporates real-time MODIS-derived vegetation.
The SPoRT-LIS enables a more complete depiction of sub-county drought conditions in space and time compared to coarse soil observation networks (point sources). Since soil moisture and resulting vegetation/crop health are important factors for drought designations, the LIS 3-km analysis provides added value through the integration of 2-dimensional near real-time QPE (Stage IV) and remotely-sensed MODIS vegetation “greenness."
NASA SPoRT-LIS soil moisture percentiles are available for a variety of depths (up to 200 cm) and use a 1981–2013 soil moisture climatology.
0–100 cm Soil Moisture Percentile
0–2nd Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth is in the bottom 2% (0–2nd percentile) of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
2nd–5th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 2nd to 5th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
5th–10th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 5th to 10th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
10th–20th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 10th to 20th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
20th–30th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 20th to 30th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
30th–70th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 30th to 70th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
70th–80th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 70th to 80th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
80th–90th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 80th to 90th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
90th–95th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 90th to 95th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
95th–98th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth falls between the 95th to 98th percentile of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
98th–100th Percentile
Soil moisture at 0–100cm depth is in the top 2% (98th to 100th percentile) of historical measurements for this day of the year. Learn more.
This NASA SPoRT-LIS soil moisture map shows the moisture content of the top 100 cm of soil compared to historical conditions (1981–2013), based on the Noah unified land surface model. Red and orange hues indicate drier soils, while greens and blues indicate greater soil moisture.
This map updates daily with data from NASA's Short-term Prediction and Transition Center – Land Information System (SPoRT-LIS).
Access
- Main SPoRT-LIS Website
- Access NASA SPoRT-LIS soil moisture products by geographic region, via the SPoRT Viewer:
