Originating from NASA Headquarters, the briefing will be broadcast live on JPL TV channels 33, 36 and 45.1 and streamed on the agency’s website.

SMAP, set to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space and will detect whether the ground is frozen or thawed. The data will be used to enhance scientists’ understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.

The briefing participants are:
- Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive, NASA’s Earth Science Division
- Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager, JPL
- Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Brad Doorn, SMAP applications lead, NASA’s Applied Sciences Program

Media and the public also may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

SMAP is the last of five NASA Earth science missions scheduled for launch within a 12-month period. NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing.