Saturday, November 21, 2009

This really IS important: new satellite will measure ocean salinity and soil moisture

Wow, meant to get to this two weeks ago, but I can update with even more information. The Europeans launched a new satellite called pedantically the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, and it successfully deployed its triple antenna system after launch, and now it's sending back data in the spin-up phase. Not only that, it's a very COOL looking satellite. Linked articles and an image follow:


Eurockot Launches SMOS And Proba-2

SMOS Forms Three-Pointed Star In The Sky

SMOS satellite instrument comes alive

SMOS:















NASA has a similar mission in the works, with a more harmonious name (Aquarius), but it won't launch until 2010 -- hopefully. And it's not as good-looking, either.

Aquarius:

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