Long awaited satellite to monitor water cycle reaches orbit

The 658kg (1,450 lb) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) this week carried a payload composed of a single instrument – the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS). The SMOS is the first ever satellite designed both to map sea surface salinity and to monitor soil moisture on a global scale and the unique radiometer it carries will enable passive surveying of the water cycle between oceans, the atmosphere and land thereby playing a key role in the monitoring of global climate change.

MIRAS is an interferometer that connects together 69 antenna-receivers mounted on three deployable arms, which unfold to form a large three-pointed star shape that measures eight meters (26-feet) across. Each of the 69 receivers, called LICEFs, measures radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface within the “L-band”, around 1.4 GHz. This frequency provides the best sensitivity to variations in moisture in the soil and changes in the salinity of the surface waters of the oceans. In addition, this frequency is not affected too much by the weather, atmosphere and vegetation cover.

“The data collected by SMOS will complement measurements already performed on the ground and at sea to monitor water exchanges on a global scale,” said Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes. “Since these exchanges – most of which occur in remote areas – directly affect the weather, they are of paramount importance to meteorologists. Moreover, salinity is one of the drivers for the Thermohaline Circulation, the large network of currents that steers heat exchanges within the oceans on a global scale, and its survey has long been awaited by climatologists who try to predict the long-term effects of today’s climate change,” Liebig added.

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Tags: climatologists, earth observation, european space agency, global climate change, global scale, interferometer, ocean salinity, paramount importance, sea surface salinity, soil moisture, thermohaline circulation

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