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Have you ever wondered how the SMAP satellite, with an altitude of 685 km (425 miles) above the Earth, can take measurements as precise as the amount of water in the Earth's soil?
The quick answer is that it requires precisely calibrated instruments, along with a technological marvel in satellite design.
SMAP was designed to use a combination of two precise instruments, one with high resolution, one with high accuracy.
THE INSTRUMENTS:
Active (High Resolution): SMAP’s radar was designed accurately measure the echoes of very short radio frequency (RF) pulses that bounce ...
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Curriculum:
SCIENCE AND MATH
TECHNOLOGY
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
The SMAP Mission is vital to understanding our planet. Water is an essential source for life. By understanding the amount of water in the soil, or soil moisture, we can apply this information to many things.
Monitoring Drought
SMAP monitors soil moisture and provides critical information for drought early warning. In fact, a deficit in the amount of moisture in the soil defines agricultural drought. SMAP's measurements will come into play because researchers forecast a threefold increase in drought frequency in many regions of the world by the end of the 21st Century. ...
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Field Campaigns:
SMAP
GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Investigation Areas:
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Weekly Report 1: 10/1/15 - 10/15/15
This report contains two weeks of data collection due to the beginning of the campaign on October 1, 2015:
Volumetric Soil Moisture Measurements = 19
Participating Sites = 4
Schools Submitting Data:
Shumate Middle School - Michigan - 8 data counts
Ramey School - Puerto Rico -7 data counts
The University of Toledo -Ohio - 2 data counts
Thomas Edison Energy/Smart Charter School - New Jersey - 2 data counts
Congratulations to those schools for getting a great start. Let's get more schools participating!
Brian
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Curriculum:
SCIENCE AND MATH
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Investigation Areas:
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
News Topics:
COMPETITIONS
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Many of you contributed data during the GPM-GLOBE Precipitation Field Campaign earlier this year. Here's an opportunity to learn about an upcoming scientific field campaign, upon which our student field campaign was modeled.
The Olympic Mountain Experiment, or OLYMPEX, is a NASA-led field campaign, which will take place on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State from November 2015 through February 2016. The goal of the campaign is to collect detailed atmospheric measurements that will be used to evaluate how well rain-observing satellites measure rainfall and ...
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And so last time we wondered whether Jayme would reach the summit... read her account below, to find out.
September 29, 2015
With very little sleep at Kosovo camp, we bundled on our layers and tried to eat some breakfast on September 29, 2015. After making sure we had plenty of water, we began our daunting task up the volcanic scree. The guides led us up a path with many switchbacks, but it did not help us with the lower oxygen we were getting with each breathe. As the clouds rolled in, the Omani team was frequently asking for breaks. The guides would find a spot with larger ...
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Greetings from NASA and the SMAP Mission!
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission is an orbiting observatory that measures the amount of water in the top 5 cm (2 inches) of soil everywhere on Earth’s surface will soon be placed in a polar orbit around Earth.
The topsoil layer is the one in which the food we eat grows and where other vegetation lives. Moisture in the soil indirectly affects us in a variety of ways. In the course of its observations, SMAP will also determine if the ground is frozen or thawed in colder areas of the world.
SMAP is designed to measure ...
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GLOBE Teachers and Students,
The GLOBE/SMAP Soil Moisture Measurement Field Campaign has begun!
To support this effort, the SMAP satellite mission invites GLOBE schools to participate in the 7-month-long soil moisture measurement campaign. Students will take soil moisture measurements following the GLOBE SMAP Block Pattern Soil Moisture (Volumetric) Protocol and input this data into GLOBE. Once the data is input, other GLOBE schools and SMAP scientists can view the student-collected data, through the GLOBE visualization tool, and compare it to the SMAP satellite data. ...
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As I did not summit, I asked a GLOBE teacher and volcanologist (and no, she does not have ears like Dr. Spock from Star Trek!) Jayme Margolin-Sneider who did, to share her experience and that of the group that did summit. As some background, Jayme completed her undergraduate degree at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA and Auckland University, New Zealand. She then completed some research as a Fulbright Scholar at Hokkaido University, Japan (Seismic Volcanology Research). Her graduate work was completed at New Mexico Tech, with a ...
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Our final day was an easy hike down from the Mweka camp to a village at 1400 m. We had a final glance of the mountain at one point as we descended. It looked beautiful with its fresh covering of snow.
Kilimanjaro, with a fresh coat of snow, as seen from our final descent.
We were definitely in the rain forest biome again and the lush forest surrounded us as on our first day. We also saw the elephant trunk flower, ( Impatiens kilimanjarii ), a semi-official logo of the mountain.
Elephant trunk flower found along the side of the trail ...
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For group 1, the science group, the descent was more gradual. But for group 2, the big descent would be today. They would summit and descend most of the mountain on this day.
While waiting to leave Millenium camp, we collected data using GLOBE protocols. Following this we had a rousing chorus of African songs, and we were all invited to join in. The group was in great spirits as we began our relatively short and all downhill hike. We also passed a few other hikers as we walked -- this was an encouraging sign. We were still in the moorland biome and ...
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After another cold night on the mountain (it was two degrees Celsius inside the tents) we awoke to a wonderful sight... Mt. Meru in a sea of clouds.
Mt. Meru, Tanzania's second highest mountain, in a sea of clouds as seen from Karanga Camp.
Incredible view so early in the morning and a great way to begin our day. The hike today would be a short three hours, so after a hearty breakfast we headed to Millenium camp. The terrain was very much the same, but we did see obsidian rocks (formed when the lava from a ...
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GIO Director, Tony Murphy, taking water temperature in stream near Baranco camp early in the morning. Temperature was 5C.
Karanga camp, which is 10 m below Baranco camp is home for Monday night. What an adventurous day we had getting there! We began our morning taking soil moisture measurements for the SMAP campaign.
Mark Brettenny, GLOBE Africa Regional Officer, checking on a soil moisture probe before students take measurements.
Then we hiked the 'wall.' As we left camp, it was full with a human train -- lots of hikers, guides and ...
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Greetings from NASA and the SMAP Mission!
The SMAP Soil Moisture Measurement Field Campaign begins in 3 days.
The NASA SMAP satellite mission wants your soil moisture data.
Click HERE for more information.
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Measuring water temperature.
After breakfast we split into the two groups. Mark Brettenny of GLOBE Africa's Regional Office and I, stayed with group 1 to focus more on science. Our next camp site is Baranco camp, 3940m, so a lower elevation than Lava Tower and set in a magnificent glacial valley.
Lava Tower, over 100 m high and formed when the volcano was active.
During the hike we stopped and took a stream measurement. The stream was frozen, and the Omani students were excited to see it. The water flowing underneath ...
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We began the hike to Lava Tower, our next campsite, on Saturday morning. At 4600 m it was a significant rise in altitude. About two hours into our hike, we stopped at a stream to take some GLOBE measurements. Here students collected data and entered it into an iPad with the GLOBE Data Entry App . Once we get back to a Wifi connection, all the data we are collecting will be uploaded into the database for all of us to see.
Animals are difficult to see in this terrain but they do leave clues for you -- those come in all shapes and sizes. ...
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Very early Friday morning, we heard the Colobus monkeys screaming and howling. We awoke to find a Blue Monkey visiting our camp and checking us out. We left Big Tree camp to a rousing African Omani mix of songs. Soon we would be at our first protocol destination, a site within the rainforest. Once we arrived there we divided into groups. We took atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere measurements. Once completed we began to transition from rainforest to moorland. This had heather growing tall, as a scrub... very ...
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(Editor's Note: Due to connectivity issues, some of Tony's blogs are being routed through his home office for posting.)
The day finally arrived when we would begin our adventure. After breakfast, we boarded the bus… a very crowded bus and began the three hour drive to the Kilimanjaro National Park. At the entrance we signed in and saw all the porters who would be accompanying us and taking all the gear. In our trekking party we had over 90 porters join us, so our group in total is almost 120. Wow, what a lot of people.
We then left the entrance ...
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(Editor's Note: Due to connectivity issues, some of Tony's blogs are being routed through his home office for posting.)
Wednesday saw another beautiful day in Arusha, and with all the group in the hotel planning began in earnest. In the morning, we had some team building activities, followed by meeting the guides for Big Expeditions, the company dealing with all the logistics for this adventure. And what logistics are involved in this: making sure that we would all be safe is paramount on our minds and the guides, and then carrying all our gear plus feeding us on ...
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Before I arrived in Africa, I took another quick hike in the hills around Boulder to try to prepare myself for the coming adventure. It was a beautiful Saturday and the area looked its best: clear blue skies, a little coolness in the air…..a wonderful day to hike. The environment of course is different than Kilimanjaro in that Colorado is drier and has a different type of vegetation. The exercise and being out is what was important in my preparation.
View from Boulder Trail
I left Denver on Sunday morning and arrived at Kilimanjaro airport at 7:30 pm on ...
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Thank you to those that were able to join the webinars today.
If you were unable to attend, you can check out the recording of the webinar, presentation, and movie HERE !
This will be a great campaign and I look forward to working with all of you.
Remember, if you have any questions, please contact me Brian.A.Campbell@nasa.gov
The campaign officially starts on October 1, 2015 and runs until April 30, 2016.
Happy soil moisture collecting to you all!
Brian
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