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When organic peat soils are sufficiently dry, they become flammable. In Insular Southeast Asian peatlands, widespread deforestation and associated drainage create dry conditions that, when coupled with El Niño-driven drought, result in catastrophic fire events that release large amounts of carbon and deadly smoke to the atmosphere. While the effects of anthropogenic degradation on peat moisture and fire risk have been extensively demonstrated, climate change impacts to peat flammability are poorly understood. These impacts are likely to be mediated primarily through changes in soil moisture. However, in situ observations of peat moisture are sparse in this region. Here, we show that, counter to conventional wisdom, L-band microwave radiometric observations from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite (SMAP) are capable of accurately retrieving soil moisture in the region. We use these soil …