These engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California are assembling the
satellite for an exciting new Earth science mission, set to launch in November 2014. The
SMAP, or Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite, is an environmental research satellite, equipped
with state-of-the-art instruments for taking soil moisture and freeze/thaw measurements
all over the globe. The satellite combines two key instruments: an active radar and a
passive radiometer, which can provide high resolution, accurate measurements at a frequency
and scale never before possible.
Right now, what people are using is a few sparse measurements of soil moisture at a
few, relatively small number of areas over the Earth. And then, they apply those measurements
to models that infer what the soil moisture is on a global level. What SMAP will do is
replace that with a much more accurate, direct measurement of soil moisture over the Earth.
In addition to their scientific value, these data will be immensely valuable for a number
of applications from weather forecasting to disease control, and the scientists behind
SMAP have been working with end-users throughout the mission to ensure that the data will be
suited towards their needs and easily assimilated into their operations.
SMAP has a really rich heritage. It goes back over 15 years. It started as Hydros and developed
into the SMAP mission. So, it builds up this really great community of people that have
an interest in using soil moisture data. That community is known as the Applications Working
Group and from that community we grew what is known to be the Early Adopters.
We identified 25 Early Adopters. I say 25, but it is continuing to grow. We'll probably
have 30, or maybe 40, by the time we launch. These Early Adopters are using their own resources
to prepare for the launch because they understand that soil moisture and freeze/thaw information
is going to be important for their decision making.
The Early Adopter Program was meant to capture the most dynamic, focused and motivated of
all the institutions we have engaged with through the Applications Program, to get them
to use satellite data as early as possible.
What we ask them to do is also provide some feedback. What was the rate of success in
whatever they were forecasting, predicting or monitoring , before and after the availability
of SMAP data? We want to see that difference, in order to bring it back to the Project to
do the data product generation even better.
This video tells the stories of the SMAP Early Adopters. This diverse group of businesses,
government agencies, and organizations represent the end-users for SMAP data, and their collaboration
on the SMAP mission ensures the integration of these data into operations that affect
our day-to-day lives.
I'm Michael Ek. I'm the Land Hydrology Team Leader at the Environmental Modeling Center.
We're part of NCEP, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. They have a number
of Centers of which EMC is part. There is also the Weather Prediction Center, Hurricane
Center, Severe Storm Center. We provide national guidance for the rest of the weather service
and NOAA with environmental prediction. Weather models definitely need a very good initial
condition because if you don't have a good initial condition, you are starting from the
wrong place. So, SMAP and other remote sensing products, and other data sets that we use
that are on the ground, for example, help us to better characterize, or better describe,
what that initial condition of the surface is. So, is it frozen or not? Exactly what
is the soil moisture? We worry about other things like, is there vegetation? How green
is it? There is a number of conditions of the surface that we need to know. And soil
moisture is probably one of the most important.
Essentially, as our weather and climate models are going to higher resolution, we want to
be able to match that resolution with the input data that we get from the remote sensing.
AER is an atmospheric and environmental research company. We do research related to everything
to do with the Earth system and monitoring the Earth system. So, oceanography, land surface
processes, the atmosphere, clouds, and even the space environment. We're interested in
SMAP for a number of reasons. The foremost for me is its capabilities for providing information
for models of terrestrial ecosystems that analyze methane emission and its contribution
to greenhouse gases. The other reason we are interested in SMAP data is for mapping of
large flood events. SMAP is going to have a capability to resolve more details in flood
events at a more timely manner. This is important for disaster management, for understanding
where aid might be needed, and where resources can best be utilized. What is most exciting
about SMAP is that it is happening. We have been talking about - in the soil moisture
community and the hydrologic community -- a sensor like this for my entire career and
probably before that, so back to the mid-80s. This will finally give us insight into a problem
that, up until now, we have only been able to get at from less capable means.
The National Drought Mitigation Center is a unique center in that we are the only group
in the United States that focuses completely on drought monitoring, drought early warning,
drought planning. We have a variable group of scientists and staff that work on this
mission continually and it has evolved over the years. The group started about 20 years
ago now, and we have definitely evolved over time into the mission that we focus on reducing
drought risk across the country.
Soil moisture is really a critical component in understanding drought and where it is developing,
how severe it is. Traditionally, soil moisture information has been acquired through ground-based
measurements or probes in the soil which are few and far between. So, we are interested
in SMAP to give us more detailed information on soil moisture variations across large areas,
and really fill in the gaps between where the sensors are in the ground, to give us
a more detailed spatial view of how things are changing in the soil over time.
As we get these data at a higher resolution, covering the entire country, we are going
to do our jobs better. When you see the drought monitor map coming out each week, we are going
to have more confidence in some of the inputs that we are looking at, especially with regards
to soil moisture. They are going to be of a higher level and of a greater quality, and
more utility than anything we have had up to this point.
The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab is one of seven labs that belong to the Engineering
Research and Development Center. It is a collection of labs owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
We became involved with SMAP because we have always been interested in ways to remotely
get soil moisture information in areas that we are not allowed to go.
SMAP is one of the first new sensors that provides us a strong leap into the future
to be able to more accurately and more precisely measure soil moisture. That soil moisture
is real critical for military mission planners. When you are talking about soil moisture,
you are talking about mobility or you are talking about water security. The ability
to measure that soil moisture from space is very important for military planners.
The Army always has to get people and things from one place to the next. And if they have
multiple routes to choose from, the soil strength -- based on the soil moisture which is provided
by SMAP -- will say this route is better because it's stronger soil. So, you can get more things
over in a given amount of time.
It is fascinating being on a much larger team and working with these applications to show
how critical satellite data is to our weather analysis and our climate prediction systems
that we all work with.
At Storm Center, we work with different agencies and organizations that monitor the environment,
climate change, and natural disasters and hazards. What we do is we help integrate products
from Earth observation into decision making. We have developed products that are currently
being used by emergency management and by US agencies to deliver impact-based decision
support services, and we expect to be able to integrate SMAP data within this stream
of data products that are being delivered to these emergency managers and other agencies.
A lot of the data that is currently available is either at a very low resolution or is not
readily available when our decision makers need it. And we are expecting SMAP to be able
to fill in those gaps, to actually make that data available when it is necessary to take
those decisions. SMAP data will be one more tool in the toolbox that decision makers and
emergency managers have across the nation. It will enable them to take better decisions
when it comes to figuring out what impacts soil moisture will have on their operations.
My name is Kyle McDonald. I'm a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science at the City
College of New York. I work with the NOAA CREST Institute at City College and also the
Environmental Crossroads Initiative. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection
is interested in using the information content from the SMAP data products to inform them
with new information on the integrity of their watershed for supplying New York City potable
water. As SMAP Early Adopters, we are working with them to assist them to be ready to integrate
SMAP information into their assessment schemes for looking at the quality and amount of water
that is available to the City of New York. It is a very new and exciting application
for remote sensing science because we will be able to use this new dataset that will
be routinely available from space orbit as a new information source to hopefully get
an improved understanding of the issues that face providing water supply to growing populations.
NASS is the data collection arm of the USDA. We are the National Agricultural Statistical
Service. We collect agriculture related statistical data and provide it to the general public.
We are looking at the SMAP mission to help us define when the growing season begins,
looking at the freeze/thaw cycles, using the rapid repeat cycles that the satellite will
provide us, and giving us more objective scientific readings than we can currently get from our
ground-based enumerators which number about 4000. Potentially, this could be a really
big cost saving measure for our organization. We're very excited about the improved objectivity
and scientific basis that this SMAP mission will provide our organization. It will improve
our agricultural statistics monitoring capabilities and give us better methods and means of delivering
our message, or our scientific information, to the public.
The IRI is a research institute hosted by Columbia University that seeks to help society
understand, anticipate, and manage the impacts of climate variability, particularly in the
developing world. Efforts to help rural populations cope with the impacts of things like drought
and floods requires the ability to anticipate those impacts.
We are trying to test the utility of SMAP soil moisture products to improve the prediction
of crop yields. If we have better soil moisture data, then we can correct better our models.
Hence, the expectation is that you will have a better estimate of your yield.
SMAP provides a great deal of promise for improving the accuracy and potentially the
lead time of model-based forecasts of food crop production for food security, early warning
and management. Our hope is that this will allow food security response organizations
to anticipate and act on the threat of food insecurity driven by things like drought much
earlier in a way that will protect not only the lives, but the livelihoods, of rural populations
that are vulnerable to the impacts of drought and floods.
The SMAP Early Adopters featured in this video represent only a portion of the full Early
Adopter Program. But these organizations, dedicated to pushing the limits of technology,
represent a major step forward in the widespread implementation of satellite data, and will
continue to be an integral part of future NASA missions for many years to come.
Early Adopters are going to play a significant role in our NASA missions. They have already
shown that they provide significant feedback to NASA, and I think that they get a lot of
good value out of participating as Early Adopters. Each mission is unique and so how the Early
Adopter Programs will be formed, and the types of Early Adopters, will always be different.
But I think Early Adopters are really something that is going to stay in the NASA missions.