Since 2012, high-resolution soil moisture products are produced and distributed by BEC as research products. These soil moisture maps, at a spatial resolution of the order of 1 km, can be used to evaluate the soil water content for agriculture management purposes, and, especially important under conditions of extreme drought, to locate specific areas with high risk of fire by combining the soil moisture information with forecasts of air temperature and wind intensity. This was operationally done in the Barcelona area during the 2012 summer.
New products at other areas of the World (e.g, Australia) are presently under development, and expected to be released soon. Below, you can find a few examples of the upcoming products. The red colour inidicates dry areas (less than 0.10 m3 of water / m3 of soil), while green and blue indicate areas with higher levels of soil moisture.
The BEC Team