NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission has been validating its soil moisture (SM) products since the start of data production on March 31, 2015. Prior to launch, the mission defined a set of criteria for core validation sites (CVS) that enable the testing of the key mission SM accuracy requirement (unbiased root-mean-square error <0.04 m3/m3). The validation approach also includes other (“sparse network”) in situ SM measurements, satellite SM products, model-based SM products, and field experiments. Over the past six years, the SMAP SM products have been analyzed with respect to these reference data, and the analysis approaches themselves have been scrutinized in an effort to best understand the products’ performance. Validation of the most recent SMAP Level 2 and 3 SM retrieval products (R17000) shows that the L-band (1.4 GHz) radiometer-based SM record continues to meet mission requirements. The products are generally consistent with SM retrievals from the ESA Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity mission, although there are differences in some regions. The high-resolution (3-km) SM retrieval product, generated by combining Copernicus Sentinel-1 data with SMAP observations, performs within expectations. Currently, however, there is limited availability of 3-km CVS data to support extensive validation at this spatial scale. The most recent (version 5) SMAP Level 4 SM data assimilation product providing surface and root-zone SM with complete spatio-temporal coverage at 9-km resolution also meets performance requirements. The SMAP SM validation program will continue throughout the mission life; future plans include expanding it to forested and high-latitude regions.

In the northern hemisphere, terrestrial ecosystems transition from net sources of CO2 to the atmosphere in winter to net ecosystem carbon sinks during spring. The timing (or phase) of this transition, determined by the balance between ecosystem respiration (RECO) and primary production, is key to estimating the amplitude of the terrestrial carbon sink. We diagnose an apparent phase bias in the RECO and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) seasonal cycles estimated by the Terrestrial Carbon Flux (TCF) model framework and investigate its link to soil respiration mechanisms. Satellite observations of vegetation canopy conditions, surface meteorology, and soil moisture from the NASA SMAP Level 4 Soil Moisture product are used to model a daily carbon budget for a global network of eddy covariance flux towers. Proposed modifications to TCF include: the inhibition of foliar respiration in the light (the Kok effect); a seasonally varying litterfall phenology; an O2 diffusion limitation on heterotrophic respiration (RH); and a vertically resolved soil decomposition model. We find that RECO phase bias can result from bias in RECO magnitude and that mechanisms which reduce northern spring RECO, like substrate and O2 diffusion limitations, can mitigate the phase bias. A vertically resolved soil decomposition model mitigates this bias by temporally segmenting and lagging RH throughout the growing season. Applying these model enhancements at Continuous Soil Respiration (COSORE) sites verifies their improvement of RECO and NEE skill compared to in situ observations (up to \(\Delta\)RMSE \(=-0.76\,g\,C\,m^{-2}\,d^{-1}\)). Ultimately, these mechanisms can improve prior estimates of NEE for atmospheric inversion studies.

Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems on Earth, and their water storage dynamics strongly control these carbon stocks. The hydrological functioning of tropical peatlands differs from that of northern peatlands, which has not yet been accounted for in global land surface models (LSMs). Here, we integrated tropical peat-specific hydrology modules into a global LSM for the first time, by utilizing the peatland-specific model structure adaptation (PEATCLSM) of the NASA Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM). We developed literature-based parameter sets for natural (PEATCLSMTrop,Nat) and drained (PEATCLSMTrop,Drain) tropical peatlands. The operational CLSM version (which includes peat as a soil class) and PEATCLSMTrop,Nat were forced with global meteorological input data and evaluated over the major tropical peatland regions in Central and South America, the Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia. Evaluation against a unique and extensive data set of in situ water level and eddy covariance-derived evapotranspiration showed an overall improvement in bias and correlation over all three study regions. Over Southeast Asia, an additional simulation with PEATCLSMTrop,Drain was run to address the large fraction of drained tropical peatlands in this region. PEATCLSMTrop,Drain outperformed both CLSM and PEATCLSMTrop,Nat over drained sites. Despite the overall improvements of both tropical PEATCLSM modules, there are strong differences in performance between the three study regions. We attribute these performance differences to regional differences in accuracy of meteorological forcing data, and differences in peatland hydrologic response that are not yet captured by our model.

A common viewpoint across the Earth science community is that global soil moisture estimates from satellite L-band (1.4 GHz) measurements represent moisture only in the shallow soil layers (0-5 cm) and are of limited value for studying global terrestrial ecosystems because plants use water from deeper rootzones. Here, we argue that such a viewpoint is flawed for two reasons. First, microwave soil emission theory and statistical considerations of vertically correlated soil moisture information together indicate that L-band measurements are typically representative of soil moisture within at least the top 15-25 cm, or 3-5 times deeper than commonly thought. Second, in reviewing isotopic tracer field studies of plant water uptake, we find a global prevalence of vegetation that primarily draws moisture from these upper soil layers. This is especially true for grasslands and croplands covering more than a third of global vegetated surfaces. While shrub and tree species tend to draw deeper soil moisture, these plants often still preferentially or seasonally draw water from the upper soil layers. Therefore, L-band satellite soil moisture estimates are more relevant to global vegetation water uptake than commonly appreciated, and we encourage their application across terrestrial hydrosphere and biosphere studies.