Recently available European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESACCI) soil moisture dataset, derived by merging soil moisture values calculated using measurements from satellite-based active and passive sensors, is validated over the Indian region using in-situ observations from 117 Continental Tropical Convergence Zone (CTCZ) Programme stations spread across India. The dataset is compared for the monsoon season (June–September: JJAS) of two years – 2011–2012, over six regional domains which differ in soil characteristics and mean soil moisture values, thus taking the spatial heterogeneity into account. Evaluation shows that the mean JJAS ESACCI volumetric soil moisture is 25.5% (\(\hbox {m}^{3}\,\hbox {m}^{-3}\)), with an intra-seasonal standard deviation of 6%. The root mean squared difference (RMSD) between ESACCI soil moisture product and CTCZ observations is 10% over the Indian region. Over smaller homogeneous regions, the RMSD values between the two products are smaller than 5%, except over southern India and north-east India. Overall, the ESACCI soil moisture dataset is in good agreement with the CTCZ in-situ soil moisture observations, and has relatively higher accuracy over the plains of northern and central India, as compared to other regions. However, the ESACCI soil moisture dataset shows higher intra-seasonal variability at shorter time-scale of 2–4 days, as compared to the CTCZ observations, possibly due to the difference in the soil sampling depths between the two datasets.

欧洲航天局气候变化倡议（ESACCI）最近获得的土壤水分数据集，是通过合并使用基于卫星的主动和被动传感器的测量结果得出的土壤水分值而得出的，并使用117个大陆热带收敛带的实地观测资料对印度地区进行了验证（CTCZ）计划电台遍布印度。在2011年至2012年的两年的季风季节（6月至9月：JJAS）中，在六个区域范围内比较了该数据集，这些区域在土壤特征和平均土壤湿度值方面有所不同，因此考虑了空间异质性。评价表明，JJAS ESACCI的平均土壤含水量为25.5％（\（\ hbox {m} ^ {3} \，\ hbox {m} ^ {-3} \）），季节内标准偏差为6％。ESACCI土壤水分产品与CTCZ观测值之间的均方根差（RMSD）在印度地区为10％。在较小的均匀区域中，除了印度南部和印度东北部，两种产品之间的RMSD值均小于5％。总体而言，ESACCI土壤湿度数据集与CTCZ现场土壤湿度观测值非常吻合，与其他地区相比，印度北部和中部平原地区的准确性较高。然而，与CTCZ观测结果相比，ESACCI土壤湿度数据集在2-4天的较短时间尺度上显示出较高的季节内变化，这可能是由于两个数据集之间的土壤采样深度不同所致。