0.25⁰Global near-surface soil freeze/thaw status

The freeze/thaw status of the near-surface soil is the water-ice phase transition that occurred at the top soil layer. It is an important indicator as a giant on-off “switch” of the land surface processes including water, energy, and carbon exchanges between the land surface and atmosphere. The freeze/thaw status is an essential variable for understanding how the ecosystem responds to and affects global changes. This dataset is based on the AMSR-E and AMSR2 passive microwave brightness temperature data, and the freeze-thaw discriminant function algorithm is used to generate the global near-surface soil freeze-thaw status with a spatial resolution of grids at 0.25⁰from 2002 to 2018. The dataset can be used for the analysis of the spatial distribution and trend changes of global freeze-thaw cycles, such as the freeze/thaw onset dates and duration. It provides data support for understanding the interaction mechanism between the land surface freeze-thaw cycle and the land-atmosphere exchanges under the context of global changes.