Soil Water Content

About Soil Water Content

Soil water content is the measure of the amount of water present in a unit volume of soil. It is typically expressed as a percentage and represents the ratio of the volume of water to the total volume of the soil. This measurement is crucial for understanding the water status of the soil, providing insights into factors like drought monitoring, soil health, and hydrological processes.

The Soil Water Content Planetary Variable provides near-daily measurements of soil water content data with spatial resolution of 100 m and 1000 m. It is unhindered by clouds and has a long and consistent data record of more than 20 years, eliminating the need for maintaining large networks of physical sensors.

Discover samples of Soil Water Content, free to all active Planet users and Sentinel Hub users with a paid subscription: Sandbox Data for Soil Water Content.

Basic facts

Property	Info
Spatial resolution	100 m, 1000 m
Sensor	SMAP, AMSR-E, AMSR-E, Sentinel 2
Revisit time	137-365 observations per year
Spatial coverage	Global
Data availability	1000 m (2002 - present), 100 m (2017 - present)
Common usage/purpose	Drought-index insurance, water management, sowing date assessment, soil compaction, preventing water stress, flood risks mitigation, improving irrigation models, fire risk assessment, improving hydrological models

Planet documentation for Soil Water Content: https://developers.planet.com/docs/planetary-variables/soil-water-content/

Planet Product Specification for Soil Water Content: https://assets.planet.com/docs/Planet_soil_water_content_product_specification.pdf

Subscribing to Soil Water Content

To subscribe to Soil Water Content, use the TPDI subscriptions endpoint or EO-Browser's Commercial Data tab with the following type and id values:

type	id	Description
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-C_V1.0_100	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the C-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 100 meters. The available archive period is from July 1, 2017 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-X_V1.0_100	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the X-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 100 meters. The available archive period is from July 1, 2017 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-SMAP-L_V1.0_100	Soil Water Content data derived from the SMAP mission using L-band radiometry, with a spatial resolution of 100 meters. The available archive period is from July 1, 2017 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-C_V2.0_100	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the C-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 100 meters. The available archive period is from July 1, 2017 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-X_V2.0_100	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the X-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 100 meters. The available archive period is from July 1, 2017 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-SMAP-L_V2.0_100	Soil Water Content data derived from the SMAP mission using L-band radiometry, with a spatial resolution of 100 meters. The available archive period is from July 1, 2017 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSRE-C_V4.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR-E instrument in the C-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from June 15, 2002 to October 04, 2011.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSRE-X_V4.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR-E instrument in the X-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from June 15, 2002 to October 04, 2011.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-C_V4.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the C-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from July 25, 2012 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-X_V4.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the X-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from July 25, 2012 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-SMAP-L_V4.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the SMAP mission using L-band radiometry, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from April 1, 2015 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSRE-C_V5.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR-E instrument in the C-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from June 15, 2002 to October 04, 2011.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSRE-X_V5.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR-E instrument in the X-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from June 15, 2002 to October 04, 2011.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-C_V5.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the C-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from July 25, 2012 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-AMSR2-X_V5.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the AMSR2 instrument in the X-band frequency range, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from July 25, 2012 to present.
soil_water_content	SWC-SMAP-L_V5.0_1000	Soil Water Content data derived from the SMAP mission using L-band radiometry, with a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. The available archive period is from April 1, 2015 to present.

Available Bands

Band Name	Description	Physical Unit	Source Format	Typical Range	No Data Value	Scale
SWC	Soil Water Content	m3/m3	UINT16	0 - 1	65535	0.001
SWC_MaskedPixels	Soil Water Content pixels masked by one or more critical flags from the QF band	m3/m3	UINT16	0 - 1	65535	0.001
QF	Quality flags	unitless	UINT16	See full description here	0	1

Examples

Subscribing to and visualizing Soil Water Content is illustrated by this example.