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NASA Launches Satellite To Observe Soil Moisture

Posted by samzenpus on from the how-dry-I-am dept.

An anonymous reader sends word that NASA has launched an Earth-observing satellite, which will measure the amount of moisture in soil. "In one of the space agency's bolder projects, a newly launched NASA satellite will monitor western drought and study the moisture, frozen and liquid in Earth's soil. It's true that a satellite can't possibly fix the devastating drought that has been plaguing the American West for the last years. It is also true that it can't possibly change the fact that California has just gone through the driest month in recorded history. But what NASA plans to do is to provide the possibility of understanding the patterns of this extreme weather and, perhaps, foresee how much worse it could actually become. Called the SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive Satellite), this new, unmanned project was successfully launched on Saturday atop the United Launch Alliance Delta II Rocket. The launch took place at the California Vandenberg Air Force base at exactly 9:22 AM EST. With the successful launch, NASA just kick started a three year, $916 million mission focused on measuring and forecasting droughts, floods and other possible natural disasters that might come our way in the future."

25 comments

  1. Kick started? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NASA HAD A KICK STARTER? I would have contributed!
    Oh, you mean like an old dirt bike then? Carry on.

  2. Hobgoblins did it by Tokolosh · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

    H. L. Mencken

    I think it is great that we can expand our understanding of how nature works, but sadly, this will just be another tool for scaring us.

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
    1. Re: Hobgoblins did it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are not alarmed by intense droughts and urge nasa not to gain better understanding of what is going on.

  3. To boldly go where no . . . by Latent+Heat · · Score: 0
    . . . partially-PC-but-sexist-by-recent-standards television series producer has gone before!

    Bolder project? It may be a necessary project, it may be a long overdue project, but what is bold about orbiting robotic spacecraft with imaging gear? That it is somehow bold to offend climate-change deniers? That NASA is risking everything in that the Repubs in Congress may zero out their budget over this?

    Driest month in recorded history? Driest since Pliny-the-Elder? Since Josephus?

    Or since white dudes came to LA? What about Mayan-Aztec-Toltec inscriptions? Oral tradition?

    1. Re:To boldly go where no . . . by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      Show me the oral traditional of annual rainfall totals. Or for that matter, show me when Mayans Aztecs or Toltecs were in LA.

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      This space intentionally left blank
    2. Re:To boldly go where no . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This was my first thought. Bold? Bolder than James Webb? Bolder than Europa? Bolder than asteroid retrieval? Bolder than gearing up for sample return from Mars? This is another in a string of Earth orbiters...I'm not debating the usefulness or if it is necessary, but come on...

    3. Re:To boldly go where no . . . by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      Perhaps recorded history only starts now.. you know, with the satellite...

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  4. OK? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are the Koch bros OK with this?

  5. A different countdown by hyades1 · · Score: 1

    Cue the Global Warming Denier trolls who infest this place in three...two...one...

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re:A different countdown by volmtech · · Score: 1

      What caused the flash freeze that trapped all that methane in the then ice free, marshy Arctic in the first place? And what caused the partial thaw pushing the mile high ice sheet off the northern continents leaving barely frozen tundra?

  6. Launch time in summary is wrong by Dmotv8 · · Score: 1

    The launch occurred at 6:22AM PST or 3:22AM EST. http://www.ulalaunch.com/ula-s...

    1. Re:Launch time in summary is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, but 6:22AM PST is 9:22AM EST.

    2. Re:Launch time in summary is wrong by Rei · · Score: 1

      I wonder how the Mystery Goo is going to behave in that orbit.

      --
      I would have you sign my banana, but it's on the roof.
  7. Used in conjunction with other sats... by estitabarnak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm excited to see data from this and the atmospheric CO2 satellite which was launched (again) not long ago overlayed. Seeing how CO2 and soil moisture correspond is important for understanding limitations on microbial communities which make up a large part of the global carbon budget. It will be particularly interesting to measure changes to how these correspond over time -- it'd be a great way to get solid data for future modelling and for quantifying changes currently happening.

    Also particularly interesting is the ability to monitor changes as a result of permafrost thaw globally. There's currently some discussion whether and where permafrost thaw will be a net C sink or source. Throw in some data from a Leaf Area Index satellite (which is/are also in orbit currently) and you've got some pretty compelling global/landscape data.

    1. Re:Used in conjunction with other sats... by janenichols · · Score: 1

      Great experiment by NASA! This is the agency's first Earth satellite, the SMAP launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.The spacecraft established communications with ground controllers following a series of activation procedures, and deployed its solar array. SMAP will play a key role in understanding key components of the Earth system that brings together water, energy and carbon cycles.

  8. can't possibly fix the devastating drought by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    No, but desalination can. Get to work dammit! The 'drought' is a fraud. It needn't happen ever again on this planet.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  9. Active Passive Satellite? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Passive Aggressive Satellite

  10. Parched by the Sun scorched by the Moon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Death Valley was a lush tropical paradise when it was discovered, right?

    1. Re:Parched by the Sun scorched by the Moon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's me again. All Obamacare does is drains and devastates middle class bank accounts through 900/mo longterm gambling policy premium payments (of course, like drugs, the first time they are near free, but long term expect 900/mo) and either forces middle class responsible people to become welfare recipients, or just takes that money and gives it to the welfare fuckers breeding out of control, and to the 80 year old insurance company CEO's getting their blow jobs at country clubs from near underage 19 year old teenage single mothers, the upper and lower class fucking on other people's money, while exterminating the everyday middle class hard working people busting ass working who are the backbone of the economy and of democracy.

  11. Re: Why bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sigh...

  12. Dupe ? by Zoxed · · Score: 1

    Sounds like ESAs SMOS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... ?

    1. Re:Dupe ? by idontgno · · Score: 1

      News Flash: ESA and NASA fly similar Earth-observation missions ALL THE TIME.

      Odds are good, if NASA is doing it, so is ESA. And they collaborate on mission plans, and share data.

      Earth observation is one area of very good international cooperation. Since, after all, it's just one Earth.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.