Soil maximum available water content (MaxAWC) is a key parameter in land surface models. Being difficult to measure, this parameter is usually unavailable. A 15-year time series of satellite-derived observations of leaf area index (LAI) is used to retrieve MaxAWC for rainfed straw cereals over France. Disaggregated LAI is sequentially assimilated into the ISBA LSM. MaxAWC is estimated minimising LAI analyses increments. Annual maximum LAI observations correlate with the MaxAWC estimates.