SMOS
ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is dedicated to making global observations of soil moisture over land and salinity over oceans. By consistently mapping these components in the water cycle, SMOS advances understanding of exchange processes between Earth’s surface and atmosphere and helps improve weather and climate models.
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Identity
- Aliases
- SMOSSoil Moisture and Ocean SalinitySMOS mission
- Name
- SMOS
- Status
- active
Details
- Astronauts
- -
- Description
- ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is dedicated to making global observations of soil moisture over land and salinity over oceans. By consistently mapping these components in the water cycle, SMOS advances understanding of exchange processes between Earth’s surface and atmosphere and helps improve weather and climate models.
- Destination
- Sun-synchronous, quasi-circular dusk-dawn orbit at 758 km (98.44° inclination) for global soil-moisture and ocean-salinity observations
- Outcome
- Successful and ongoing. SMOS launched on 2 November 2009 and continues to provide global observations of soil moisture and sea-surface salinity, extending a long-term record that supports water-cycle, ocean-circulation, weather, and climate research, including monitoring of emerging El Niño conditions.
- Programs
- Start Date
- 2009-11-02
- Vehicle Families
- -
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 14, 2026 at 13:31:23 UTC
- Updated Time
- September 8, 2026 at 08:50:35 UTC
Other
- Affiliations
- Space Stations
- -
- Vehicles
- -