Global Soil Moisture (1950-2025)

Authors: Wenhong Wang, Shiao Feng, Yonggen Zhang*, Zhongwang Wei, Jianzhi Dong, Lutz Weihermüller, Cong-Qiang Liu, and Harry Vereecken

Affiliation main author: Tianjin University, China and Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany

Description of Dataset

This dataset provides an improved global surface soil moisture product for the surface soil layer, named the adjusted ERA5-Land dataset. It was created by fusing ERA5-Land and SMAP L4 data using a mean-variance rescaling method optimized for long time-series alignment. The dataset offers daily temporal resolution at a spatial resolution of 0.1°, covering the continuous period from January 1950 to December 2025, and is provided as GeoTIFF files named by date (YYYYMMDD).

The dataset is validated against, to the best of our knowledge, one of the most extensive global in situ soil moisture compilation to date, comprising approximately 3.8 million records. These records are organized into a primary dataset for contemporary validation (2015-2020) and an independent historical dataset (1960-2015) for backward-extension assessment. The dataset can be further used for research and to support drought monitoring, weather prediction, and water resource management, contributing to global climate resilience and informed decision-making across diverse ecosystems.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1061-2026

Dataset Download: To access and download the dataset, click https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.30546

References: Wang, W., Feng, S., Zhang, Y., Wei, Z., Dong, J., Weihermüller, L., Liu, C.-Q., and Vereecken, H.: Fusing ERA5-Land and SMAP L4 for an improved global soil moisture product (1950–2025), Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 1061–1088, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1061-2026, 2026.