SMOS – ESA’s Water Mission / ESA TV Exchanges / 08-06-2007
The next transmission of the ESA TV Service will be:
08-Jun-07 09:10 – 09:25 GMT
SMOS – ESA's Water Mission
ESA TV Exchanges
Background information on the transmission:
Replay 1: 8 June 15:00-15:15 GMT
Replay 2: 9 June 10:30-10:45 GMT
In about one year, ESA will launch SMOS.
SMOS stands for Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission. Global soil moisture data are needed for hydrological studies and information on ocean salinity are vital for improving our understanding of ocean circulation patterns, and therefore climate change.
SMOS will measure soil moisture and ocean salinity by capturing images of the very weak microwave radiation around the frequency of 1.4 GHz that is emitted by the Earth. This depends on humidity and salinity, respectively.
Soil moisture plays an important role in the global water cycle. However, in-situ measurements are sparse. The same is true for data on ocean salinity. There are few historical measurement data, and only a small fraction of the ocean is currently sampled on any regular basis. However, ocean salinity is therefore one of the key variables for monitoring and modelling ocean circulation.
Today’s Exchange includes new 3-D graphics of SMOS, images of SMOS development and testing, and soundbites with ESA Project Manager Achim Hahne plus scientists involved in the mission.
The script is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS52021.pdf
A WMV preview clip is online under http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mphi/SMOS_DV_03-05-07_wmphigh.wmv
This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission’s “Europe by Satellite” (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/schedule.cfm
This programme is also available in broadcast quality via ftp-transfer, from ftp://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/SMOS_MPG_03-05-07_mpeg2ps.mpg – please use your userid kcowing@reston.com and password 8dwnrd84 for fetching the file from the ESA TV server.
More background information can be found on http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPsmos.html.
Transmission details:
Sirius 2 at 4.8 degrees East, Transponder B1, Horizontal (Europe by Satellite)
F=11727.5 MHz, Symbol rate 27500 MS/sec, FEC 3/4
Audio pids: International sound=201 English=202
For further information, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For other enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail claus.habfast@esa.int.
