A short video animation demonstrating the SMAP spacecraft
PREVIEW
SMAP is designed to collect measurements of surface soil moisture and freeze/thaw state, together termed the hydrosphere state.
Shows the swath path illustrating the scanning pattern of the antenna.
Table of data product levels and descriptions.
Alongside the launch of SMAP, NASA pioneered an early adopter program to apply the data from the SMAP satellite to a variety of real-world applications.
Retrieved soil moisture based on both simulated “active” radar and “passive” radiometer data over three spacecraft swaths. The SMAP Testbed facility hosted the simulations, retrievals, and the presentation tools that yielded this output.
NASA held a media briefing at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST) Thursday, Jan. 8, at NASA Headquarters in Washington to discuss the upcoming Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission.
In order to achieve large coverage on the ground the antenna spins at 14.6 revolutions per minute (one revolution every 4 seconds).
This video tells the stories of SMAP Applications Early Adopters (post-launch update).
A trailer for the SMAP mission
The USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) has launched a web-based U.S. crop vegetation condition assessment and monitoring application: VegScape (http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/VegScape/).
A feature about the SMAP mission
A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory onboard is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches from Space Launch Complex 2, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. SMAP is NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy, and carbon cycles.
A video about the SMAP GLOBE program
NASA's SMAP and University of Texas scientists are rounding up critical soil information for managing the Lone Star State's limited water.
Initial data from SMAP capture the 2015 spring thaw progression over the Northern Hemisphere, with a thaw front extending from predominantly non-frozen southern latitudes to the still-frozen north.
Artist’s conception of SMAP taking data from orbit.
Two views of the SMAP Observatory, showing the Instrument (upper portion) and Spacecraft (lower portion) with the large antenna and solar array stowed for launch. This compact shape is needed to fit comfortably inside the launch vehicle’s protective fairing.
The deployable mesh reflector is offset from nadir and rotates about the nadir axis at 14.6 rpm, providing a conically scanning antenna beam with a surface incidence angle of 40°. The 6 m (20 foot) antenna is made of gold-coated mesh.
Promotional video for the NASA's Earth Campaign
The global carbon cycle is the complex set of interactions involving several different carbon-based gases (among them the so-called “greenhouse gases”) that take place between the atmosphere, land, and oceans of the Earth.
Accurate soil moisture information available from SMAP will improve the performance of numerical weather prediction models and seasonal climate models and enhance their predictive skill.
A simple illustration of the major elements of the energy cycle is shown in the figure.
SMAP Observatory labeled and combined.
SMAP’s liftoff will look very similar to the liftoff of an earlier NASA Delta II Mission from Vandenberg AFB, in Jun. 2011. The Delta II vehicle pictured is the same type and configuration that will be used for SMAP and will be launched from the same pad (Space Launch Complex 2W) at Vandenberg AFB.
