Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS)

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, launched on 2 November 2009, is one of the European Space Agency's (ESAs) Earth Explorer missions, which form the science and research element of the Living Planet Programme. It is the first mission to provide, from microwave L-band measurements, global observations of variability in soil moisture and sea surface salinity due to continuous exchange in Earth's water cycle between the oceans, the atmosphere and the land. These key geophysical parameters, soil moisture for hydrology studies and salinity for enhanced understanding of ocean circulation, are both vital for climate change models.

Sources

ESA. 2021. “SMOS.” Earth Online. 2021. https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/smos.