How much carbon plants take in or release daily, from NASA's SMAP satellite (9 km detail)

In plain English

What it measures. Daily estimates of how much carbon dioxide land ecosystems pull in or give off, on a roughly 9-km global grid. A positive or negative balance shows whether plants and soils acted as a carbon sink or source.

How it's made. Calculated by a carbon model that combines SMAP soil-moisture readings with vegetation data from MODIS and VIIRS and a NASA weather model, rather than a single direct measurement.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists track how forests, grasslands, and farms breathe carbon in and out, supporting climate and carbon-budget studies.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SOILS › SOIL PRODUCTIVITY › GROSS PRIMARY PRODUCTION (GPP)LAND SURFACE › SOILS › SOIL RESPIRATION › HETEROTROPHIC RESPIRATION (Rh)LAND SURFACE › SOILS › CARBON › NET ECOSYSTEM CO2 EXCHANGE (NEE)LAND SURFACE › SOILS › CARBON › SOIL ORGANIC CARBON (SOC)

Coverage & cadence

Time span2015-03-31 → ongoing
Measured byAqua (MODIS) · GEOS-5 (NOT APPLICABLE) · L4_C (NOT APPLICABLE) · SMAP (SMAP L-BAND RADIOMETER) · Suomi-NPP (VIIRS) · Terra (MODIS)
Processing levelLevel 4
Spatial extent-180, -85.044, 180, 85.044
FormatsHDF5
StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time

Official description

The Level-4 (L4) carbon product (SPL4CMDL) provides global gridded daily estimates of net ecosystem carbon (CO2) exchange derived using a satellite data based terrestrial carbon flux model informed by the following: Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) L-band microwave observations, land cover and vegetation inputs from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) land model assimilation system. Parameters are computed using an Earth-fixed, global cylindrical 9 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid, Version 2.0 (EASE-Grid 2.0) projection.

Get the data

spl4cmdl_access.py

import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SPL4CMDL",
    version="008",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD

Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links