MIT professor will lead science team for NASA satellite to map Earth's water cycle

The orbiting SMAP satellite will make simultaneous radiometer and radar measurements using a shared reflector antenna that is rotated to scan the Earth surface. The large 6 meter in diameter... Click here for more information.

“Additionally because soil moisture is a state variable that controls both water and energy fluxes at the land surface, we anticipate that assimilation of the global observations will improve the skill in numerical weather prediction, especially for events that are influenced by these fluxes at the base of the atmosphere,” said Entekhabi.

The SMAP mission is based on an earlier satellite project led by Entekhabi that had been selected by NASA from among 20 proposals and scheduled for a 2009 launch. However, the Hydrosphere State Mission (Hydros) was cancelled abruptly in 2005 when funding for NASA’s earth sciences missions was diverted. But in July 2007, the National Research Council recommended that NASA make the soil moisture measurement project a top priority and place it on a fast track for launch.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., is the lead NASA center for the project, with participation from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. NASA’s lead scientists on the project are Eni Njoku, SMAP project scientist at JPL, and Peggy O’Neill, SMAP deputy project scientist at GSFC.