The Soil Moisture Active and Passive Mission (SMAP): Science and Applications
Author(s)
Entekhabi, Dara; O'Neill, Peggy E.; Njoku, Eni G.
DownloadEntekhabi_The soil moisture.pdf (284.9Kb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY
Publisher Policy
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The soil moisture active and passive mission (SMAP) will provide global maps of soil moisture content and surface freeze/thaw state. Global measurements of these variables are critical for terrestrial water and carbon cycle applications. The SMAP observatory consists of two multipolarization L-band sensors, a radar and radiometer, that share a deployable-mesh reflector antenna. The combined observations from the two sensors will allow accurate estimation of soil moisture at hydrometeorological (10 km) and hydroclimatological (40 km) spatial scales. The rotating antenna configuration provides conical scans of the Earth surface at a constant look angle. The wide-swath (1000 km) measurements will allow global mapping of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state with 2-3 days revisit. Freeze/thaw in boreal latitudes will be mapped using the radar at 3 km resolution with 1-2 days revisit. The synergy of active and passive observations enables measurements of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state with unprecedented resolution, sensitivity, area coverage and revisit.
Date issued
2009-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringJournal
Proceedings of the IEEE Radar Conference 2009
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Citation
Entekhabi, Dara, Eni Njoku, and Peggy O’Neill. “The Soil Moisture Active and Passive Mission (SMAP): Science and Applications.” IEEE, 2009. 1–3. © Copyright 2009 IEEE
Version: Final published version
ISBN
978-1-4244-2870-0
ISSN
1097-5659