ESA - Observing the Earth - SMOS ready to ship to launch site

About Observing the Earth

How does Earth Observation work?How to get Earth observation data Integrating Earth Observation in your job Earth Observation users speak

EO programmes

The Living Planet GMES

ESA's Earth Observing missions

Envisat overview ERS overview Earth Explorers overview Sentinels overview MSG overview MetOp overview Proba-1 overview Third Party Missions overview

Opportunities with us

Education & training International cooperation Milestones & announcements EO conferences organised by ESA

Multimedia

Image Gallery Video Gallery Online resources RSS feeds

Services

Calendar Subscribe

Article Images

SMOS ready to ship to launch site

28 May 2009

Back to article

TheESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 4580 kb)

ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission will provide global maps of soil moisture and ocean salinity. Soil moisture data are urgently required for hydrological studies; data on ocean salinity are vital for improving our understanding of ocean circulation patterns. Together, these data will contribute to furthering our knowledge of Earth’s water cycle, and help to improve climate, weather and extreme-event forecasting.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 92 kb)

ESA's Inspector General Peter Dubock – first of the three Flight Acceptance Review Board's Chairmen to sign the 'consent to ship' documentation following the successful completion of the SMOS Mission Flight Acceptance Review.

Credits: ESA

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 1162 kb)

The SMOS satellite in the cleanroom at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France on 24 April 2009. The satellite, which has just come out of storage, will soon be prepared for shipment to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The three antenna arms, which form the measuring instrument are currently folded up but once launched they unfold into a Y-shape. The instrument that carries 69 separate antenna-receivers which measure radiation emitted from Earth at L-band where the frequency is about 1.4 GHz/21 cm wavelength to derive information on soil moisture and ocean salinity.

Credits: ESA

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 431 kb)

SMOS Flight Acceptance Review (FAR) Board members and observers at ESA-ESTEC in the Netherlands on 20 May 2009

Credits: ESA