A reconstructed global soil moisture dataset at improved spatial resolution from 2001 to 2012

Soil moisture is a direct indicator of soil water content. Microwave remote sensing techniques have provided global soil moisture measurements, which are beneficial to monitor floods and agricultural droughts, regional water resources variability in response to climate change or human activities. However, data gaps and low spatial resolutions reduced the value of remotely sensed soil moisture products in various applications because of the limitations from satellite sensors and inversion algorithms. Here we present a spatially continuous global monthly soil moisture dataset from 2000 to 2016. The dataset was generated from the original combined European Space Agency (ESA) Essential Climate Variables (CCI) soil moisture product at spatial resolution of 0.25°. The new dataset is gap-filled and has an improved spatial resolution of 0.05°. This dataset, called the Improved ESA CCI monthly soil moisture product (IECMSM), will provide a more complete and spatially detailed soil moisture measurement for the researchers in hydrology, climate, and agriculture to understand the water cycle and climate, monitor agriculture and mange our water resources.