The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite was launched on 2nd November 2009 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, 800 kilometers north of Moscow.
The satellite is beginning a unique mission: the large-area mapping of soil moisture and ocean salinity. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has already initiated a number of research projects in order to evaluate the environmental data.
Both ocean salinity and soil moisture content are core parameters for the understanding of the Earth's water cycle and climate change. The information from SMOS will be much more accurate and more meaningful than previous satellite data or point measurements, which were carried out on the ground or at sea. It will facilitate improved analyses and forecasts concerning ocean circulation, availability of water resources and extreme weather events.
SMOS is the first mission that is devoted to the determination of ocean salinity over large areas. The salt content of the oceans is an important parameter for environmental monitoring. For instance, if the salinity in the Polar Regions drops unexpectedly, this is an alarm message, because it can indicate faster than predicted melting of the ice caps.
The determination of the water content of the soil is another task for SMOS. Analyses of soil moisture content are, on the one hand, important for long-term studies of the global water cycle. On the other hand, they help to predict the likelihood of extreme events, such as floods, with improved accuracy. With the data from SMOS, a global map of soil moisture distribution will be available for the first time.
