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Groundwater and Soil Moisture Conditions from GRACE-FO Data Assimilation for the Contiguous U.S. and Global Land

Product:

Area:

Groundwater Percentile
Groundwater Percentile
Root Zone Soil Moisture Percentile
Surface Soil Moisture Percentile

About the Product


Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center generate groundwater and soil moisture drought indicators each week. They are based on terrestrial water storage observations derived from GRACE-FO satellite data and integrated with other observations, using a sophisticated numerical model of land surface water and energy processes. The drought indicators describe current wet or dry conditions, expressed as a percentile showing the probability of occurrence for that particular location and time of year, with lower values (warm colors) meaning dryer than normal, and higher values (blues) meaning wetter than normal. These are provided as both images and binary data files.

The Contiguous U.S. (CONUS) indicators are generated at 0.125 degree, while the Global Land indicators are at 0.25 degree resolution (Global/Africa/Asia/Australia/Europe/North America/South America areas above).

Preferred Citations


Please cite

Houborg et al. (2012) for the U.S. drought/wetness indicators.
Li et al. (2019) for the global drought/wetness indicators.
Getirana et al. (2020) for the U.S. drought/wetness forecasts.

If using maps and data please use

Data / maps available at nasagrace.unl.edu through a partnership with the National Drought Mitigation Center.