SMOS
ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer mission was launched on November 2, 2009 to observe two important components of the water cycle. Its L-band interferometric radiometer measures microwave brightness temperature, from which soil moisture over land and sea-surface salinity over oceans are retrieved. These products support studies of surface–atmosphere exchange, weather and climate, with additional applications to thin sea ice. Soil-moisture and salinity products have different spatial and temporal averaging requirements: ESA describes roughly 50 km soil-moisture mapping every three days, while high-precision salinity estimates use substantially broader spatial and multi-day averaging. The retrievals require product-specific interpretation rather than treating brightness temperature as moisture or salinity directly.
Schedule, status, and mission updates. Time-based alerts will start when a time is available.
Identity
- Aliases
- SMOSSoil Moisture and Ocean SalinitySMOS mission
- Name
- SMOS
- Status
- active
Details
- Astronauts
- -
- Description
- ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer mission was launched on November 2, 2009 to observe two important components of the water cycle. Its L-band interferometric radiometer measures microwave brightness temperature, from which soil moisture over land and sea-surface salinity over oceans are retrieved. These products support studies of surface–atmosphere exchange, weather and climate, with additional applications to thin sea ice. Soil-moisture and salinity products have different spatial and temporal averaging requirements: ESA describes roughly 50 km soil-moisture mapping every three days, while high-precision salinity estimates use substantially broader spatial and multi-day averaging. The retrievals require product-specific interpretation rather than treating brightness temperature as moisture or salinity directly.
- 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
- October 29, 2026 at 15:34:56 UTC
Other
- Affiliations
- Space Stations
- -
- Vehicles
- -