The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is an orbiting observatory that measures the amount of water in the surface soil everywhere on Earth. It was launched in January 2015 and started operation in April 2015. The SMAP radiometer has been operating flawlessly. The radar instrument, ceasing operation in early 2015 due to failure of radar power supply, collected close to 3 months of science data. The prime mission phase of three years was completed in 2018, and since then SMAP has been in extended operation phase.
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is an orbiting observatory that measures the amount of water in the surface soil everywhere on Earth. It was launched in January 2015 and started operation in April 2015. The SMAP radiometer has been operating flawlessly. The radar instrument, ceasing operation in early 2015 due to failure of radar power supply, collected close to 3 months of science data. The prime mission phase of three years was completed in 2018, and since then SMAP has been in extended operation phase.
Related Publications
2026.
"Soil moisture retrieval from Sentinel-1: Lessons learned after more than a decade in orbit.",
Remote Sensing of Environment,
333
115146
[10.1016/j.rse.2025.115146]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2025.
"Impact of assimilating SMAP observations over land on tropical cyclone representation: A case study of Tropical Cyclone Idai.",
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society,
151
(772):
e5018
[10.1002/qj.5018]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2025.
"Assimilation of ASCAT Soil Moisture and SMAP Brightness Temperature Observations into the NASA GEOS Land Data Assimilation System.",
Journal of Hydrometeorology,
26
1237-1259
[10.1175/jhm-d-24-0139.1]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2025.
"A Model‐Based Evaluation of the Effects of Irrigation Expansion on Regional and Global Land Surface Climate.",
Earth's Future,
13
(9):
e2025EF006271
[10.1029/2025ef006271]
[Journal Article/Letter]