Fusing ERA5-Land and SMAP L4 for an Improved Global Soil Moisture Product (1950-2025)

This dataset provides an improved global surface soil moisture product for the surface soil layer, named the adjusted ERA5-Land dataset, which was created by fusing ERA5-Land and SMAP L4 data using a mean-variance rescaling method optimized for long time-series alignment. The dataset is validated against the most extensive global in situ soil moisture compilation to date, comprising approximately 3.8 million records, which are organized into a primary dataset for contemporary validation (2015–2020) and an independent historical dataset (1960–2015) for backward-extension assessment. The dataset offers daily temporal resolution at a spatial resolution of 0.1°, covering the period from January 1950 to October 2025, and is provided as GeoTIFF files named by date (YYYYMMDD). The dataset can be further used for research and support drought monitoring, weather prediction, and water resource management, contributing to global climate resilience and informed decision-making across diverse ecosystems.