The rocket carrying the SMAP soil moisture observatory lifts off Jan. 31 at California’s Vandenberg AFB. (Bill Ingalls photo courtesy NASA)

NASA launches satellite to map soil moisture

Reuters — An unmanned Delta 2 rocket was launched Saturday to put a NASA satellite into orbit that is expected to improve drought monitoring and flooding forecasts. The 39-metre rocket, built and flown by United Launch Alliance, lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 6:22 a.m. PT, the U.S. National Aeronautics and

U.S. scientists call 2014 Earth’s hottest year on record

Cape Canaveral | Reuters — Last year was Earth’s warmest on record, bolstering the argument that people are altering the planet’s climate by relentlessly burning fuels that belch greenhouse gases into the air, two major U.S. government agencies said Friday. Separate studies by the U.S. space agency NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


The SMAP satellite will use active and passive radioactive waves to measure soil moisture.

Not your average soil moisture-measuring project

A satellite that measures soil moisture expected to launch in January

If you Google “SMAP” two things will come up — a Japanese boy band from the ’90s and a NASA satellite project that will attempt to measure soil moisture on a global scale. The latter is the subject of new soil research from the University of Manitoba. The satellite, set to launch on January 29,