NISAR backscatter observations will estimate a global high-resolution soil moisture product at a pixel spacing of 200 m. On average, this product will be provided twice every 12 days, and is expected to have a data latency of 72 hours.
Soil moisture estimates will be provided over areas with dense vegetation (VWC greater than 5 kg/m2), but will be flagged as potentially unreliable. No soil moisture retrievals will be provided for areas with urban build-up, permanent snow and ice cover, or permanent inland waterbodies, and these pixels will be flagged appropriately. No soil moisture retrieval will be performed over areas with excessive precipitation, frozen ground, or snow on the ground.
The NISAR soil moisture has an accuracy goal of 0.06 m3/m3 over unflagged areas with vegetation water content below 5 kg/m2. The 5+5 MHz product will be aggregated to 400 meters but will still be posted to the 200-m EASE-Grid 2.0.