Thirty Years of Global Soil Moisture Measurements from Space

This animation shows global monthly averages of soil moisture in the early 1980s in litres per m3, followed by changes in global soil moisture to present.
Major anomalies are highlighted, such as the 1992 flooding in Afghanistan, the 2005 drought in the central US, Russia’s heatwave in 2010 and Australia’s floods in Queensland in January 2011.