Artist's impression of Europe's SMOS probe (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity).
Credit: European Space Agency
PARIS: A water tracking satellite launched by the European Space Agency is designed to help give faster predictions of floods and other extreme weather incidents caused by climate change.
The 315 million euro Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) probe was carried into space on a Russian Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia on Monday, local time, and isnow orbiting 760 km above Earth from where it will gauge the impact of climate change on the movement of water across land, air and sea.
By providing precise measures of soil moisture and ocean surface salt levels, SMOS will fill important gaps in scientific knowledge about the water cycle and help meteorologists make more accurate forecasts in near-real time, say experts.
Uncertain impacts
"Climate change is a fact, but its impact on precipitation, evaporation, surface runoff and flood risks is still uncertain," said Yann Kerr, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Biosphere from Space and SMOS mission scientific director.
"The availability of water plays a more important role on these impacts than temperature itself," he told journalists.
Scientists rely heavily on computer models to project weather and climate patterns, and the additional data will make predictions more accurate.
SMOS "has long been awaited by climatologists who try to predict the long-term effects of today's climate change," said ESA's director of Earth observations programme Volker Liebig in a communique. "The data collected will complement measurements already performed on the ground and at sea."
The satellite has two intertwined missions. Measuring soil water content to a depth of one-to-two metres across the planet every three days will help forecast drought and flood risk.
Breaking storms
When a storm breaks, for example, the ability of rainwater to percolate down depends on the type of soil and how much water it is already holding.
It is also critical for calculating Earth's carbon cycle, the process by which heat-trapping carbon dioxide is released and absorbed, especially by plants and the oceans.
Climate change, scientists agree, is largely caused by CO2 pollution that has upset that natural balance.
Its second job is to measure changes in the salt content of sea surface waters, which will enhance understanding of what drives global ocean circulation patterns.
Ocean circulation helps moderate climate, notably by transporting heat from the equator to the poles.
Some studies have suggested that global warming could disrupt these cycles and dramatically alter regional weather patterns.
