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Abstract
Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS), launched on 2 November 2009, is the first satellite mission addressing sea surface salinity (SSS) measurement from space. Its unique payload is the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS), a new two-dimensional interferometer designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operating at the L-band frequency. This article presents a summary of SSS retrieval from SMOS observations and shows initial results obtained one year after launch. These results are encouraging, but also indicate that further improvements at various data processing levels are needed and hence are currently under investigation.
Acknowledgements
The SMOS Level 2 Prototype Processor development was funded by the European Space Agency under different contracts. This work was also supported in part by the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, and by the Spanish National R+D Plan for the SMOS Barcelona Expert Centre on Radiometric Calibration and Ocean Salinity (http://www.smos-bec.icm.csic.es) activities, through project ESP2007-65667-C04 and previous grants.
Notes
François Petitcolin deceased.