NASA Drought Prediction Satellite Ready to Start

According to environmentalist Lester Brown, droughts will be common in the near future. At a time when Leicester told the world about it, NASA launched its spacecraft to predict drought. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite is designed to measure soil moisture levels.

The agency will be able to predict droughts and floods. Now that SMAP has deployed its antenna, the scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be checking hardware for the next few days so that the satellite will begin its three-year mission. If all goes well, the satellite will be able to photograph the surface of the Earth for each scan.

The European Space Agency has a similar project. A satellite called SMOS, which recently celebrated its fifth birthday, also monitors the humidity of the earth's soil.