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NASA’s Aquarius instrument has returned its first global maps of soil moisture.

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And these new maps reveal how the moisture in the soil responds to the changing seasons and weather phenomena. 

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The Aquarius instrument flies aboard the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite, which launched in June 2011.

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This satellite was built by NASA and Argentina’s space agency, with a primary objective of measuring the salt concentration of the ocean surface. 

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Within the same year it was launched, the satellite produced its first global maps of sea surface salinity. 

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In addition to salinity, scientists also developed a method to use Aquarius to monitor moisture in the first two inches of soil.

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Soil moisture is the water contained within the spaces of air between soil particles. 

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The amount of water in the soil can vary due to drought, floods, irrigation and changes in rainfall.

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Soil moisture measurements have many uses, from improving weather forecasts and climate models to refining drought and flood predictions.  

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Observations made be Aquarius will be used to fine-tune soil moisture measurements made by NASA’s SMAP satellite, which is scheduled to launch later this year.