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SMOS (Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity)

Mission Overview

The SMOS satellite, which will study sea surface salinity and monitor soil moisture, was launched on November 2, 2009, on board a Russian Rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. (Photo: ESA)

Climate change is one of the key challenges of the 21st century, and improving our understanding of it is imperative. Scientists believe that by acquiring more data about soil moisture and ocean salinity--two key variables linked to the Earth's water cycle--they will better understand how a changing climate may be affecting patterns of evaporation over land and ocean.

To gather this essential information, a satellite called SMOS (Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity), developed under the European Space Agency's (ESA) Living Planet Programme, was launched on November 2 on a Russian rocket launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia. It is the first satellite designed to both map sea surface salinity and monitor soil moisture on a global scale, thus contributing to a better understanding of the Earth's water cycle. As a secondary objective, SMOS will also provide observations over snow and ice-covered regions, contributing to the study of the cryosphere.