NASA’S SMAP Mission Kickstarts Global Soil Moisture Analyzing Operations

With the launch of Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, NASA has laid foundations for mapping global soil moisture and accurate weather predictions that can help us cope with the drastic weather irregularities. Now after completion of observatory, science operations have been commenced.

The team involved in the mission is ready to compare the collected data with the ground measurements regarding discrepancies of the nature of soil. This very activity will last for more than a year and will help scientists in analyzing the soil types, vegetation and ground cover.

In addition to this, these measurements will be very useful for scientists to understand the flow of water and carbon. Thus, this will lead to more proper comprehension of the variations between carbon cycle and water cycle.

The mission is expected to accomplish its purpose of providing up-to-date global soil moisture maps over the course of three years, after which it will be terminated.

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http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/