Soil Moisture To Be Tracked From Space
WASHINGTON (WJZ)--It exists only a few inches beneath our feet, but without it we wouldn't be here.
It's moisture trapped in the soil, and unlocking its secrets means going into space.
Alex Demetrick has the details.
Three years ago, drought came to Maryland when rain didn't, and soil dried up.
"Mother nature hasn't been very helpful, you know with weather this year, we had pretty much grown this corn with irrigated water," said Scott Youse.
Only one percent of the Earth's water is held in soil, and NASA is about to launch a new spacecraft to track it worldwide.
A soil measurement observatory called SMAP was built by the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and the Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland.
With SMAP, "You can see in daylight and at night. You can see through clouds. You can penetrate moderate vegetation," said SMAP researcher Dr. Dara Entekhabi.
And it will map soil moisture everywhere on Earth every three days, seeing where it's drying out in some places and getting wetter in others.
"In fact, peer through the soil for a few inches to measure the volume of water in the soil," said Entekhabi.
Information produced by this spacecraft is more than just academic.
"Soil moisture impacts many areas of human interest, including flood, drought, disease control and weather," said Christie Bonniksen, SMAP Program Executive.
Elements that all move as moisture in the soil moves.
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