SMAP Mission Applications; Post Launch Research and the Early Adopter Program Socioeconomic Impact Analyses

Abstract:

NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission, launched January 31, 2015, has grown an Early Adopter (EA) community since 2010. Over the next two years, the mission Applications Team will conduct socioeconomic impact analyses on thematic EA research in an effort to demonstrate the value of SMAP products in societally relevant, decision support applications. The SMAP mission provides global observations of the Earth’s surface soil moisture, providing high accuracy, resolution and continuous global coverage. The SMAP Applications Team will document and evaluate the use of SMAP science products in applications related to weather forecasting, drought, agriculture productivity, floods, human health and national security. SMAP EA research in applied science cases such as sea ice and sea surface winds will also be evaluated.

SMAP EAs provide a thematically scaled perspective on the use and impact of SMAP data. This analysis will demonstrate how the investments in pre-launch applications and early adopter efforts contributed to the mission value, product impact and fueled new research that contributes to the use of mission products, thereby enhancing mission success. This paper presents a set of Early Adopter case studies that show how EAs plan to use SMAP science products to enhance decision support systems, and about how the SMAP data stream affects these users. Detailed tracking of this comprehensive set of case studies will enable quantification and monetization of the benefits of an application by the end of the first two years after launch.