Sadikur Rahman Naiem :
A new satellite, SMAP, built by the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and the Goddard Space flight Centre in Maryland, could measure the hidden waters that influence our weather and climate is in final preparations.
At present, no ground or satellite based global network infrastructure exists for monitoring soil moisture on a local level.
SMAP’s payload includes two microwave instruments capable of monitoring Earth’s surface to a depth of 5 cm mapping the planet every two to three days. Providing the most detailed soils maps to date in an effort to fill the infrastructure gap.
SMAP is scheduled to launch January 29 on a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite, which is roughly the size of a small school bus, is equipped with a lightweight conically scanning deployable mesh reflector built by Northrop Grumman’s Astro Aerospace of Carpinteria, California, an L-band radiometer and an L-band nonimaging synthetic aperture radar.
“It will focus on the water that lives and moves through the soil,” said NASA scientist Christine Bonniksen. Soil moisture is an important predictor of droughts, floods and other weather patterns.
SMAP will provide regularly updated data that will be useful for farmers and forecasters alike. The $916 million dollar machine looks sort of like a small refrigerator carrying a large, golden umbrella. That umbrella is actually an antenna attached to a spinning mechanical arm.
SMAP’s science team lead and an environmental engineer at MIT said, “I think the next couple of years are going to be very exciting for Earth science.”
The primary science objective of SMAP is to create global, high-resolution mapping of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state with unprecedented accuracy, resolution, and coverage to: estimate global water and energy fluxes at the land surface, link terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycle processes, quantify net carbon flux in boreal landscapes, extend weather and climate forecast capabilities, develop improved flood and drought prediction capability, develop improved agricultural productivity and climate change prediction capability.
SMAP’s two advanced instruments will 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. SMAP will be the fifth NASA Earth science mission to launch within a 12-month period. NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. n
(Sadikur Rahman Naiem is an Electronics & Telecommunication Engineer)
A new satellite, SMAP, built by the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and the Goddard Space flight Centre in Maryland, could measure the hidden waters that influence our weather and climate is in final preparations.
At present, no ground or satellite based global network infrastructure exists for monitoring soil moisture on a local level.
SMAP’s payload includes two microwave instruments capable of monitoring Earth’s surface to a depth of 5 cm mapping the planet every two to three days. Providing the most detailed soils maps to date in an effort to fill the infrastructure gap.
SMAP is scheduled to launch January 29 on a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite, which is roughly the size of a small school bus, is equipped with a lightweight conically scanning deployable mesh reflector built by Northrop Grumman’s Astro Aerospace of Carpinteria, California, an L-band radiometer and an L-band nonimaging synthetic aperture radar.
“It will focus on the water that lives and moves through the soil,” said NASA scientist Christine Bonniksen. Soil moisture is an important predictor of droughts, floods and other weather patterns.
SMAP will provide regularly updated data that will be useful for farmers and forecasters alike. The $916 million dollar machine looks sort of like a small refrigerator carrying a large, golden umbrella. That umbrella is actually an antenna attached to a spinning mechanical arm.
SMAP’s science team lead and an environmental engineer at MIT said, “I think the next couple of years are going to be very exciting for Earth science.”
The primary science objective of SMAP is to create global, high-resolution mapping of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state with unprecedented accuracy, resolution, and coverage to: estimate global water and energy fluxes at the land surface, link terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycle processes, quantify net carbon flux in boreal landscapes, extend weather and climate forecast capabilities, develop improved flood and drought prediction capability, develop improved agricultural productivity and climate change prediction capability.
SMAP’s two advanced instruments will 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. SMAP will be the fifth NASA Earth science mission to launch within a 12-month period. NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. n
(Sadikur Rahman Naiem is an Electronics & Telecommunication Engineer)
