After the initial launch date was delayed by two days due to wind, NASA’s first satellite designed to collect soil moisture data from the Earth’s surface—the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite—launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Jan. 31.
According to information in a NASA press release, the launch begins a three-year mission that will “figuratively scratch below the earth’s surface.” SMAP’s technology enables it to peer into the top 2 inches of soil, day and night, “to produce the highest-resolution, most accurate soil moisture maps ever obtained from space.”
The release also states that the mission will help improve climate and weather forecasts, as well as allow nations to better forecast crop yields. The satellite can also detect whether the ground is frozen or thawed. Getting SMAP off the ground wraps up a nearly year-long period for NASA that saw the launch of five new missions designed to help scientists better understand the changes on Earth.
“The next few years will be especially exciting for Earth science thanks to the measurements from SMAP and our other new missions,” said Michael Feilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “Each mission measures key variables that affect Earth’s environment. SMAP will provide new insights into the global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Combining data from all our orbiting missions will give us a much better understanding of how the Earth system works.”
The satellite will map the globe every two to three days. NASA is expecting to release the first of SMAP’s data within nine months and fully validated science data are expected within 15 months.
The launch from Vandenberg was the first of 10 missions scheduled for the Air Force base in 2015.
This article appears in Feb 5-12, 2015.
