Global monthly AMSR-E-derived Soil Moisture
---------------------------------------

The dataset contains global monthly-mean soil moisture statistics (average values and standard deviation) for 1 by 1 degree grid cells.
The source for the data is AMSR-E daily estimates of soil moisture (Product name: AMSR_E_L3_DailyLand)  
The dataset covers the time period strating July 2002. Currently the last month processed is December 2006.

Data files contain 180 lines with 360 pixels per line. The projection is 
latitude-longitude with the upper left corner of the first pixel of the first line 
positioned at 90N 180W. 

The file naming convention:

amsre_soil_moisture_avr_mm_yyyy : monthly average soil moisture where "mm" is a two digit month number, and "yyy" is a four-digit year
amsre_soil_moisture_std_mm_yyyy : standard deviation of soil moisture 

Soil moisture values are in g/cm^3 multiplied by 1000 and saved as 2-byte integer (Linux system was used)

Valid range of values in files is 0 to 500 corresponding to 0 to 0.5 g/cm^3 soil moisture or standard deviation of soil moisture.

Values outside this range mean "no data"

soil_moisture_map_1d.pro in the "images" folder is the IDL code used to read data files and generate .png images of soil moisture