SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY

European Water Mission Lifts Off

from BBC News Online

A European satellite is set to provide major new insights into how water is cycled around the Earth. The Smos spacecraft will make the first global maps of the amount of moisture held in soils and of the quantity of salts dissolved in the oceans.

The data will have wide uses but should improve weather forecasts and warnings of extreme events, such as floods. A Russian Rokot launcher carrying Smos lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia at 0450 (0150 GMT) on Monday.

... The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (Smos) satellite is part of an armada of European spacecraft being sent into orbit over the next few years to study the planet.