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STAR Soil Moisture Operational Product System (SMOPS) Portal

Blended SMOPS Soil Moisture animation
March 31 - April 22 2026

Land surface soil moisture is a critical state variable for NOAA's numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and the National Water Model. It also supports wide-ranging applications in agriculture, water resources management, and military operations. Satellite remote sensing provides the essential observational data needed to improve these simulations and forecasts.

In collaboration with NOAA weather and water modelers, NOAA NESDIS developed and operationalized the Soil Moisture Operational Product System (SMOPS). SMOPS utilizes all available microwave satellite observations to generate global-scale, near-real-time soil moisture data with minimal latency.

Recently, the NESDIS soil moisture science team reprocessed all SMOPS satellite soil moisture data (SMOPScdr) from 2002 to 2025 using a thoroughly validated machine learning algorithm.

Access the Data:

Near-Real-Time Data:
Click "Near-real time SMOPS" button to view maps of current SMOPSnrt data.
Reprocessed Climate Data:
Download the SMOPScdr data.
Documentation:
To learn more about the reprocessed SMOPScdr dataset, check out our BAMS publication.

Use the buttons on the left panel to navigate to other information.

For questions about STAR's satellite soil moisture products, please contact Jicheng.Liu@noaa.gov or Xiwu (Jerry) Zhan