Global downscaling and assimilation of soil moisture

There is a requirement of higher spatial resolution of soil moisture as the 9km resolution from SMAP is not adequate. In this work we use MODIS 1km and ECOSTRESS VIIRS 400m vegetation and surface temperature to downscale the SMAP 9km soil moisture to 1km and 400m. We have validated the global 1km soil moisture extensively using global networks. With the CyGNSS and SMAP missions, we have the ability to assimilate sub-daily soil moisture into land surface models. In this talk we will examine the performance of data assimilation of soil moisture using triple colocation.