Evaluation of ASCAT soil moisture retrievals and their potential to detect intraday variability

Dinh, Lan Anh; Aires, Filipe; Pellet, Victor

doi:10.5194/eo-1-105-2026

Articles | Volume 1, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/eo-1-105-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/eo-1-105-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 1, issue 1

Research article

|

17 Sep 2026

Research article |

| 17 Sep 2026

Evaluation of ASCAT soil moisture retrievals and their potential to detect intraday variability

Lan Anh Dinh, Filipe Aires, and Victor Pellet

Data sets

ASCAT Surface Soil Moisture Climate Data Record v7 12.5 km sampling - Metop H SAF https://doi.org/10.15770/EUM_SAF_H_0009

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

The Global Land Data Assimilation System (https://ldas.gsfc.nasa.gov/gldas/soils) M. Rodell et al. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-85-3-381

The International Soil Moisture Network: serving Earth system science for over a decade (https://ismn.earth/en/data/) W. Dorigo et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5749-2021

Annual NLCD Collection 1 Science Products (ver. 1.1, June 2025) U.S. Geological Survey https://doi.org/10.5066/P94UXNTS

Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) Quantitative Precipitation Estimation: Initial Operating Capabilities (https://mtarchive.geol.iastate.edu/) J. Zhang et al. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00174.1

Short summary

Soil moisture (SM) plays a key role in weather, agriculture, and water management. While satellites can measure SM from space, obtaining accurate, frequent measurements throughout the day remains challenging. Here, we explore how deep learning models can improve sub-daily SM estimates. Our approach focuses on capturing spatial patterns and adapting to local conditions. Using data from the Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) satellite instrument, we show that this model can produce reliable SM estimates multiple times a day.