MIT professor will lead science team for NASA satellite to map Earth's water cycle

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The orbiting SMAP satellite will make simultaneous radiometer and radar measurements using a shared reflector antenna that is rotated to scan the Earth surface. The large 6 meter in diameter reflector is made up of light-weight deployable mesh materi ...
The orbiting SMAP satellite will make simultaneous radiometer and radar measurements using a shared reflector antenna that is rotated to scan the Earth surface. The large 6 meter in diameter reflector is made up of light-weight deployable mesh material that stows for launch in the rocket enclosure. Image Courtesy of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

MIT Professor Dara Entekhabi will lead the science team designing a NASA satellite mission to make global soil moisture and freeze/thaw measurements, data essential to the accuracy of weather forecasts and predictions of global carbon cycle and climate. NASA announced recently that the Soil Moisture Active-Passive mission (SMAP) is scheduled to launch December 2012.


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Japanese sailor first to cross Pacific in wave-powered boat

Jul 05, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Japanese sailor and environmentalist Kenichi Horie has completed a 110-day solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean in a boat propelled by wave power to claim another world first.

Major quake hits region of Okhotsk Sea

Jul 05, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 hit the region of the Sea of Okhotsk early Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, but no casualties were reported.

Phoenix scientists soon will analyze Martian ice

Jul 04, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Scientists with the US Phoenix lander will make their first analysis of Martian ice fragments in coming days but it could be the last done in one of the probe's small ovens, NASA said on its website Friday. ...

Only seven years left for global warming target: UN panel chief

Jul 04, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
The head of the UN's Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists on Friday said only seven years remained for stabilising emissions of global-warming gases at a level widely considered safe.

Australia needs carbon trading to fight climate change: study

Jul 04, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
A major climate change report for Australia's government on Friday recommended the rapid introduction of an emissions trading scheme to curb greenhouse gases and warned that delay could be disastrous.
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