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.
NASA Satellite Set to Get the Dirt on Soil Moisture (Press Release)
A new NASA satellite that will peer into the topmost layer of Earth's soils to measure the hidden waters that influence our weather and climate is in final preparations for a Jan. 29 dawn launch from California.
The Soil Moisture Active Passive(SMAP) mission will take the pulse of a key measure of our water planet: how freshwater cycles over Earth's land surfaces in the form of soil moisture. The mission will produce the most accurate, highest-resolution global maps ever obtained from space of the moisture present in the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of Earth's soils. It also will detect and map whether the ground is frozen or thawed. This data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.
"With data from SMAP, scientists and decision makers around the world will be better equipped to understand how Earth works as a system and how soil moisture impacts a myriad of human activities, from floods and drought to weather and crop yield forecasts," said Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorate's Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "SMAP's global soil moisture measurements will provide a new capability to improve our understanding of Earth's climate."
Globally, the volume of soil moisture varies between three and five percent in desert and arid regions, to between 40 and 50 percent in saturated soils. In general, the amount depends on such factors as precipitation patterns, topography, vegetation cover and soil composition. There are not enough sensors in the ground to map the variability in global soil moisture at the level of detail needed by scientists and decision makers. From space, SMAP will produce global maps with 6-mile (10-kilometer) resolution every two to three days.
Researchers want to measure soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state better for numerous reasons. Plants and crops draw water from the soil through their roots to grow. If soil moisture is inadequate, plants fail to grow, which over time can lead to reduced crop yields. Also, energy from the sun evaporates moisture in the soil, thereby cooling surface temperatures and also increasing moisture in the atmosphere, allowing clouds and precipitation to form more readily. In this way, soil moisture has a significant effect on both short-term regional weather and longer-term global climate.
In summer, plants in Earth's northern boreal regions -- the forests found in Earth's high northern latitudes -- take in carbon dioxide from the air and use it to grow, but lay dormant during the winter freeze period. All other factors being equal, the longer the growing season, the more carbon plants take in and the more effective forests are in removing carbon dioxide from the air. Since the start of the growing season is marked by the thawing and refreezing of water in soils, mapping the freeze/thaw state of soils with SMAP will help scientists more accurately account for how much carbon plants are removing from the atmosphere each year. This information will lead to better estimates of the carbon budget in the atmosphere and, hence, better assessments of future global warming.
SMAP data will enhance our confidence in projections of how Earth's water cycle will respond to climate change.
"Assessing future changes in regional water availability is perhaps one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today," said Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team leader at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Today's computer models disagree on how the water cycle -- precipitation, clouds, evaporation, runoff, soil water availability -- will increase or decrease over time and in different regions as our world warms. SMAP's higher-resolution soil moisture data will improve the models used to make daily weather and longer-term climate predictions."
SMAP also will advance our ability to monitor droughts, predict floods and mitigate the related impacts of these extreme events. It will allow the monitoring of regional deficits in soil moisture and provide critical inputs into drought monitoring and early warning systems used by resource managers. The mission's high-resolution observations of soil moisture will improve flood warnings by providing information on ground saturation conditions before rainstorms.
SMAP's two advanced instruments work together to produce soil moisture maps. Its active radar works much like a flash camera, but instead of transmitting visible light, it transmits microwave pulses that pass through clouds and moderate vegetation cover to the ground and measures how much of that signal is reflected back. Its passive radiometer operates like a natural-light camera, capturing emitted microwave radiation without transmitting a pulse. Unlike traditional cameras, however, SMAP's images are in the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is invisible to the naked eye. Microwave radiation is sensitive to how much moisture is contained in the soil.
The two instruments share a large, lightweight reflector antenna that will be unfurled in orbit like a blooming flower and then spin at about 14 revolutions per minute. The antenna will allow the instruments to collect data across a 621-mile (1,000-kilometer) swath, enabling global coverage every two to three days.
SMAP's radiometer measurements extend and expand on soil moisture measurements currently made by the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity(SMOS) mission, launched in 2009. With the addition of a radar instrument, SMAP's soil moisture measurements will be able to distinguish finer features on the ground.
SMAP will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and maneuver into a 426-mile (685-kilometer) altitude, near-polar orbit that repeats exactly every eight days. The mission is designed to operate at least three years.
SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. JPL is responsible for project management, system engineering, radar instrumentation, mission operations and the ground data system. Goddard is responsible for the radiometer instrument. Both centers collaborate on science data processing and delivery to the Alaska Satellite Facility, in Fairbanks, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, at the University of Colorado in Boulder, for public distribution and archiving. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Happy New Year, Everyone! 2015 promises to be a mega-year in terms of movies and space exploration...with our first close-up glimpse of two dwarf planets about to take place in a few months, and the follow-up to The Avengers and the long-awaited first installment in the Star Wars sequel trilogy set to come out in theaters by this Christmas. In terms of the dwarf planets, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will arrive at asteroid Ceres this March—while the New Horizons spacecraft will make its historic flyby of Pluto this July (the probe will begin Pluto encounter operations on January 15). On the manned side of spaceflight, a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will launch to the International Space Station this March to begin a year-long mission aboard the outpost that should provide intriguing data about how humans will someday fare during a years-long journey to and from Mars.
On the movie aspect of 2015, Avengers: Age of Ultron will continue Marvel's winning streak at the theaters on May 1, while Disney (which owns Marvel) will enhance its overall winning streak when Kylo Ren (shown above) unleashes the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens on December 18. Other potential blockbusters will storm the cinemas as well...like Furious 7(April 3), Mad Max: Fury Road(May 15), Jurassic World(June 12), Terminator: Genisys(July 1), the James Bond film Spectre(November 6), Part 2 of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay(November 20) and Mission: Impossible 5(Christmas Day). In terms of M:I-5, I hope it's as good as 2011's Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol...but I sure as heck hope that it doesn't eat too much into The Force Awakens' box office take during the holidays! We'll see if Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt proves a match for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) when they hit the big screen once more.
On a personal note, two close high school friends of mine are planning to get married (to other folks, that is) by the end of this year. Good for them! For financial reasons, I'm just hoping that their weddings will both be in-state (California, FYI). One of them already is. Cross my fingers that the other one will, too! Heh.
January 2015
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo to the International Space Station (Jan 6)
-Taken 3(Jan 9)
-72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards(Jan 11)
-College Football Playoff National Championship in Arlington, Texas (Jan 12)
-NASA's New Horizons spacecraft begins Pluto encounter operations (Jan 15)
-Blackhat(Jan 16)
-NASA's SMAP satellite is launched to low-Earth orbit (Jan 29)
February 2015
-Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona (Feb 1)
-Jupiter Ascending(Feb 6)
-57th Annual Grammy Awards(Feb 8)
-Kingsman: The Secret Service(Feb 13)
-Fifty Shades of Grey(Feb 13)
-2015 NBA All-Star Game in New York, New York (Feb 15)
-Hot Tub Time Machine 2(Feb 20)
-57th annual Daytona 500 in Florida (Feb 22)
-87th Academy Awards(Feb 22)
-Focus(Feb 27)
March 2015
-NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrives at dwarf planet Ceres (Mar 6)
-Chappie(Mar 6)
-The Coup(Mar 6)
-The first qualification motor test-firing is conducted on the 5-segment solid rocket booster for NASA's Space Launch System, in Utah (Mar 11)
-Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension(Mar 13)
-2015 NCAA March Madness basketball tournament begins with Opening Round Game (Mar 17)
-The Divergent Series: Insurgent(Mar 20)
-A total solar eclipse will be visible over Europe (Mar 20)
-Get Hard(Mar 20)
-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko launch on a one-year mission to the International Space Station (Mar 27)
-Conclusion of the March Madness tournament prior to the 2015 Final Four games in Indianapolis (Mar 29)
April 2015
-Furious 7(Apr 3)
-2015 NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana (Apr 4)
-A total lunar eclipse will be visible over western North America, the Pacific, east Asia, Australia and New Zealand (Apr 4)
-NCAA Final Four Championship Game in Indianapolis, Indiana (Apr 6)
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo to the International Space Station (Apr 8)
-NFL Draft begins (Apr 30)
May 2015
-Avengers: Age of Ultron(May 1)
-NFL Draft concludes (May 2)
-Mad Max: Fury Road(May 15)
-Pitch Perfect 2(May 15)
-Spy(May 15)
-Tomorrowland(May 22)
-Start of the 2015 French Open tennis tournament (May 24)
-99th Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (May 24)
-San Andreas(May 29)
June 2015
-Entourage(Jun 5)
-Conclusion of the 2015 French Open (Jun 7)
-Jurassic World(Jun 12)
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo, including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, to the International Space Station (Jun 13)
-Inside Out(Jun 19)
-Ted 2(Jun 26)
July 2015
-Terminator Genisys(Jul 1)
-Start of the 2015 Tour de France(Jul 4)
-Minions(Jul 10)
-NASA's New Horizons spacecraft makes its closest approach to the dwarf planet Pluto (Jul 14)
-2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati, Ohio (Jul 14)
-Ant-Man(Jul 17)
-Trainwreck(Jul 17)
-Pan(Jul 24)
-Poltergeist(Jul 24)
-Conclusion of the Tour de France (Jul 26)
-Point Break(Jul 31)
August 2015
-The Fantastic Four(Aug 7)
-Masterminds(Aug 14)
-Straight Outta Compton(Aug 14)
-Launch of Japan's fifth H-2 Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station (Aug 17)
-Sinister 2(Aug 21)
-Hitman: Agent 47(Aug 28)
-Start of the 2015 World Rowing Championships in France (Aug 30)
September 2015
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo to the International Space Station (Sep 2)
-Jane Got a Gun(Sep 4)
-Kitchen Sink(Sep 4)
-Conclusion of the World Rowing Championships (Sep 6)
-Triple Nine(Sep 11)
-A partial solar eclipse will occur (Sep 13)
-Black Mass(Sep 18)
-Everest(Sep 18)
-The Intern(Sep 25)
October 2015
-Victor Frankenstein(Oct 2)
-London Has Fallen(Oct 2)
-The Jungle Book(Oct 9)
-Vacation(Oct 9)
-St. James Place(Oct 16)
-Jem and the Holograms(Oct 23)
-The Last Witch Hunter(Oct 23)
November 2015
-Start of the Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok, Thailand (Nov 1)
-Spectre(Nov 6)
-The Peanuts Movie(Nov 6)
-Conclusion of the Asian Archery Championships (Nov 8)
-The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2(Nov 20)
-The Good Dinosaur(Nov 25)
-The Martian(Nov 25)
December 2015
-Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens(December 18)
-Alvin and the Chipmunks 4(Dec 23)
-Mission: Impossible 5(Dec 25)
-The Revenant(Dec 25)
-The U.S. Marine Corps' F-35B Lightning II fighter jet officially becomes operational and ready for combat (TBD)
-China launches the Barcelona Moon Team's lander and rover to the lunar surface (TBD)
-Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus freighter launches cargo to the International Space Station (TBD)
After a 2-year absence due to NASA budget cuts, the Open House finally returned to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena this weekend. Based on the huge throngs of people and the extremely long line of cars trying to enter the Caltech-run installation today (the traffic jam extended all the way to the 210 Freeway; if you've ever been to JPL or at least the La Cañada Flintridge area, you'll know that this is pretty major), I wasn't the only one waiting for this NASA center to open its gates to the public once more. It's not a surprise though... The huge success of the Curiosity Mars rover since she arrived at the Red Planet in 2012, the continuing on-pour of amazing photos from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn and Voyager 1's historic arrival in interstellar space two years ago has whet people's appetites to visit the facility that is responsible for constructing and managing these amazing robotic probes.
The highlights of this year's Open House were: 1.) The Soil Moisture Active Passive(SMAP) satellite that was on display inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility (SMAP will be shipped to its launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base 160 miles north of Los Angeles sometime this week or the next... It's scheduled to head into space next January), 2.) Crowds being able to visit the Mission Support Room (above) inside the Space Flight Operations Facility (below) for the very first time (The MSR, of course, was made famous by all the cheering flight controllers on NASA TV as Curiosity safely touched down on Mars) and 3.) Pretty much everything else on exhibit at JPL. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the fact that this Open House was extremely crowded showed that folks wanted to see anything and everything that this NASA site had to offer. And hopefully, they weren't disappointed (I sure wasn't). I definitely can't wait to visit the Open House again next year...with the highlights of 2015 most likely being Dawn's first-ever images of the dwarf planet Ceres after the spacecraft arrives there next March, and the preparation for NASA's next Mars lander (called InSight) as it gears up for launch in early 2016. That is all.
