Image: Root-zone soil moisture map

ESA's SMOS mission was launched in 2009 to provide global observations of soil moisture and ocean salinity – two important variables in Earth's water cycle. While this novel Earth Explorer satellite continues to advance our understanding of the planet, it is also showing considerable potential for real-world applications to improve everyday life. A number of these applications have been presented at the Living Planet Symposium in Prague in the Czech Republic. One example demonstrates how i