Objectives and Applications
This Scout mission, HydroGNSS, will provide measurements of key hydrological climate variables, including soil moisture, freeze–thaw state over permafrost, inundation and wetlands, and above-ground biomass, using a technique called Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflectometry. In doing so it will complement missions such as ESA’s SMOS and Biomass, Copernicus Sentinel-1 and NASA’s SMAP. Knowledge of these variables helps scientists understand climate change and contributes towards weather modelling, ecology mapping, agricultural planning and flood preparedness.
Full Name
HydroGNSS-1 and -2
aka Scout-2
Mission Status
Operational (nominal)
Mission Agencies
Launch Date
28 Nov 2025
Mission Links
EOL Date
Dec 2030
Orbit Type
Sun-synchronous
Orbit Period
95.3 minutes
Orbit Sense
Descending
Orbit Inclination
98.7 deg
Orbit Altitude
530 km
Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST
10:30
Repeat Cycle
15 days
NORAD Catalog #s
International Designators
No IDN OpenSearch datasets found.