Drought Solutions Offered by NASA
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Technology
SMAP Satellite to Be Launched in Order to Estimate and Map the Entire Globe on Daily Basis by ProvidingAssessment of Soil Moisture
California's last two winters have been among the driest since records began in 1879. Currently, there is no ground- or satellite-based global network monitoring soil moisture at a local level. Farmers, scientists and resource managers can place sensors in the ground, but these only provide spot measurements and are rare across some critical agricultural areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission measures soil moisture at a resolution of 31 miles (50 kilometers), but because soil moisture can vary on a much smaller scale, its data are most useful in broad forecasts.
EnterNASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive(SMAP) satellite. The mission, scheduled to launch this winter, will collect the kind of local data agricultural and water managers worldwide need. SMAP uses two microwave instruments to monitor the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of soil on Earth's surface. Together, the instruments create soil moisture estimates with a resolution of about 6 miles (9 kilometers), mapping the entire globe every two or three days. Although this resolution cannot show how soil moisture might vary within a single field, it will give the most detailed maps yet made.
Underground water resources are hard to estimate, so farmers who rely on groundwater have fewer indicators of approaching shortfalls than those whose irrigation comes partially from rain or snowmelt. For these parts of the world where farmers have little data available to help them understand current conditions, SMAP's measurements could fill a significant void. Some farmers handle drought by changing irrigation patterns. Others delay planting or harvesting to give plants their best shot at success. Currently, schedule modifications are based mostly on growers' observations and experience. SMAP's data will provide an objective assessment of soil moisture to help with their management strategy.
A primary goal of the SMAP Mission is to engage SMAP end users and build broad support for SMAP applications through a transparent and inclusive process. Applications are defined as innovative uses of mission data products in decision-making activities for societal benefit. Applications research will provide fundamental knowledge of how mission data products can be scaled and integrated into users' policy, business and management activities to improve decision-making efforts.
Toward that goal, the SMAP Mission: Formed the SMAP Applications Working Group (AppWG), which currently has over three hundred members, and produced a Formal SMAP Applications Plan. The Working Group and Applications Plan endeavor to communicate with user community and leverage relationships; and coordinate with SMAP data calibration, respectively. Applications research will provide fundamental knowledge of how mission data products can be scaled and integrated into users' policy, business and management activities to improve decision-making efforts.
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