Assessment of the SMOS inversion scheme for salinity and wind speed retrieval purposes

Abstract

A simplified parallel version of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Level 2 Ocean Salinity (L2OS) processor is used to assess the optimal configuration of both the SMOS cost function and the corresponding minimization scheme for sea surface salinity (SSS) and wind speed (U 10 ) retrievals. For such a purpose, both realistically simulated brightness temperatures (TBs) and a post-launch derived semi-empirical forward model are used. This study confirms the effectiveness of the L2OS configuration for SSS retrieval and provides the optimal configuration for U 10 retrieval. A revised cost function formulation, where the observational term has more weight than the background one, is further assessed, which leads to smaller retrieval errors.

Singularity Power Spectra: A Method to Assess Geophysical Consistency of Gridded Products—Application to Sea-Surface Salinity Remote Sensing Maps

“…This variance is artificial and is related to the low sensitivity of the L-Band brightness temperature to salinity changes at low SST. Moreover, SMOS SSS retrievals are very much constrained by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) winds [Montuori et al, 2013], which are particularly inaccurate for high wind regions, such as the Southern Ocean. High-level SMOS products, as SOI and SL4, depict a significant reduction of such noise.…”

Introduction to the thematic issue: Microwave remote sensing

“…In addition, two special sessions on COSMO-SkyMed and new emerging SAR techniques were organized (the program, along with the presentations in pdf format, is available at http://www.cetem.org). This special issue collects 12 papers, which are grouped into four main categories: 1) hydrology & water quality , Iacobellis et al, 2013Pierdicca et al, 2013;Vittucci et al, 2013;Adamo et al, 2013]; 2) methods [Refice et al, 2013;Di Martino et al, 2013;Braga et al, 2013;Montuori et al, 2013]; 3) agriculture [Fontanelli et al, 2013;Rinaldi et al, 2013]; 4) meteorology [Marra et al, 2013]. The papers represent updated achievements of research in the field of microwave remote sensing.…”