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Title: NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and opportunities for applications users

Author
item BROWN, M.E. - Goddard Space Flight Center
item ESCOBAR, V. - Goddard Space Flight Center
item Moran, Mary
item ENTEKHABI, D. - Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
item O'NEILL, P.E. - Goddard Space Flight Center
item NJOKU, E.G. - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
item DOORN, B. - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item ENTIN, J. - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)

Submitted to: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/19/2012
Publication Date: 8/30/2013
Citation: Brown, M., Escobar, V., Moran, M.S., Entekhabi, D., O'Neill, P., Njoku, E., Doorn, B., Entin, J. 2013. NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and opportunities for applications users. Bulletin of the American Meterological Society. 94:1125–1128. https//doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00049.1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00049.1

Interpretive Summary: NASA is planning to launch the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to provide global measurements of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state for applications such as flood forecasting, drought monitoring, and numerical weather prediction. The SMAP mission is leading a new effort to increase and sustain the interaction between users and scientists involved in mission development. This has resulting in unique opportunities for users to engage with the SMAP Mission even before launch. These opportunities include becoming an official Early Adopter of SMAP data, attending SMAP applications, calibration/validation and algorithm workshops, and using SMAP soil moisture datasets for applications research.

Technical Abstract: The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is one of four first-tier missions recommended by the National Research Council's Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space. Set to launch in 2014, SMAP soil moisture and freeze/thaw measurements will have an accuracy, resolution, and global coverage required to address many scientific problems in hydrology, meteorology and ecology as well as many applications such as flood forecasting, drought monitoring, and numerical weather prediction. The SMAP concept was born out of more than a decade of community organizing and the clear need for global estimates of soil moisture, resulting in a satellite mission. The opportunities to engage with the SMAP Mission include becoming an official Early Adopter of SMAP data, attending SMAP applications, calibration/validation and algorithm workshops, and using SMAP soil moisture datasets for applications research.