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Cryospheric Sciences
Operational

Soil Moisture Active-Passive Mission (SMAP)

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.

Launch Date
December 2015
Class
Flight Project
Websites
Key Staffs
  • Science Team Member
  • Calibration Team Member
  • Science Team Member
  • Deputy Project Scientist

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. "Automatic calibration of DSSAT and APEX models for maize yield simulation and economic optimum nitrogen rate determination.", European Journal of Agronomy, 172 127870 [10.1016/j.eja.2025.127870] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Optimizing on-farm corn yield prediction by a multi-source data fusion approach using remote sensing and machine learning.", Smart Agricultural Technology, 12 101630 [10.1016/j.atech.2025.101630] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Detection and Analysis of GPS L1-Band Radio Frequency Interference Using Spaceborne Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry Receivers.", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 63 1-14 [10.1109/tgrs.2025.3584367] [Journal Article/Letter]

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]