NASA On Air: NASA Launches Soil Moisture Satellite to Aid Weather Forecasts (1/31/2015)

Animation of SMAP launching and collecting data. SMAP will produce global maps of soil moisture. Animation from NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Animation showing Earth's water cycle Visualization of different Earth systems Fleet of Earth observing satellites 1st stage separation. 2nd Stage Separation SMAP Deploy SMAP Boom Deploy SMAP Antenna Deploy SMAP Beauty Pass A video about the challenges of testing the largest rotating mesh antenna ever launched into space. Dr. John Bolten talks about the SMAP mission SMAP Mission Video Dr. John Bolten talks about the SMAP mission Dr. John Bolten talks about the SMAP mission Matthew Rodell canned interview. NASA scientists talk about the launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive - or SMAP - satellite scheduled to launch on Jan 29. SMAP will take stock of the water hidden just beneath your feet, in the topsoil. Knowing how much water is in the soil, and whether it is frozen or thawed, has profound applications for society, from better forecasting of natural disasters like floods and droughts to helping prevent food shortages.How SMAP's radiometer works.How SMAP will help weather forecasts.More about SMAP.NASA TV's video file. For More InformationSee [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/soil-moisture-active-passive-smap/](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/soil-moisture-active-passive-smap/) Related pages

The microwave radiometer on NASA's SMAP mission was designed and built at Goddard Space Flight Center to avoid unwanted radio frequency interference. Instrument Scientist Jeff Piepmeier explains how and why.For complete transcript, click here.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. The microwave radiometer on NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite was designed and built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Along with the microwave radar, data from the radiometer will be used to calculate the water content of Earth's soil.All types of soil emit microwave radiation, but the amount of water changes how much of this energy is emitted. The drier the soil, the more microwave energy; the wetter the soil, the less energy.But radio frequency interference is a problem, even though the instrument is passively listening in a region of the microwave spectrum where transmission is prohibited. Some of the signals from the surrounding regions leak into the protected "listen-only" band. Goddard engineers developed new hardware and software to search for and cut out the erroneous measurements. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-s-new-radiometer-tunes-in-to-soil-s-frequency/) Related pages