Overview of SMOS Level 2 Ocean Salinity processing and first results

Abstract

International audienceSMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity), launched in November 2, 2009 is the first satellite mission addressing the salinity measurement from space through the use of MIRAS (Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis), a new two-dimensional interferometer designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operating at L-band. This paper presents a summary of the sea surface salinity retrieval approach implemented in SMOS, as well as first results obtained after completing the mission commissioning phase in May 2010. A large number of papers have been published about salinity remote sensing and its implementation in the SMOS mission. An extensive list of references is provided here, many authored by the SMOS ocean salinity team, with emphasis on the different physical processes that have been considered in the SMOS salinity retrieval algorithm

Ocean Mixed Layer responses to intense meteorological events during HyMeX-SOP1 from a high-resolution ocean simulation

“…Obviously, they are difficult to capture with scarce and patchy in situ observations. Recent satellite products such as those obtained with the ''Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity'' (SMOS) microwave radiometer (Font et al, 2011) are able to observe the low-salinity lenses formation (McCulloch et al, 2012), but at large-scale over wide ocean basins (far from the contaminating coastal land signal). High-resolution satellite SST products have the capabilities of observing skin temperature anomalies (i.e.…”

“…Notably, AROME-WMED explicitly solves the atmospheric convection, which is mandatory to well reproduce heavy precipitating systems. In fact, a high space-time resolution is necessary to accurately represent the intense and short peaks in the wind and/or precipitation surface forcing induced by intense weather systems in the Mediterranean region and thus the ocean response (Lebeaupin Brossier et al, 2009b, 2011. The highresolution ocean simulation covering the whole SOP1 is used as a numerical laboratory and enables us to follow the 4D evolution of the OML in the whole western Mediterranean Sea.…”

SMOS CP34 soil moisture and ocean salinity maps

“…The SMOS-BEC researchers contribute to the ESA mission as Expert Support Laboratory for Ll (UPC) and L2-salinity (ICM). Besides analysing and proposing solutions to the various aspects of the data processing at all levels that still require improvement [3,4], the SMOS-BEC team is studying for example alternative image reconstruction or salinity retrieval approaches, and possible new products for the CP34, as well as preparing the exploitation of SMOS data, like their assimilation into ocean circulation numerical models. Although it was not one of its primary focuses, the group is also addressing the analysis of SMOS data over land and investigating new methodologies to add value to the original SMOS products.…”

Detection of a Sea Surface Salinity Gradient Using Data Sets of Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radiometer HUT-2-D and a GNSS-R Instrument

“…in [102], [103], [104], [105] and the first scientific results e.g. in [106], [107], [108]. The most recent overview of the mission status is given in [109].…”

“…In order to enhance the performance of an interferometer the idea of FTT was taken further to utilize measurement of a water body in the processing. The method was tested with airborne data from HUT-2D in [Publication VI] and data from MIRAS in [106], [144] and [145] with good results. Accordingly, this method is called the Ocean Target Transformation, OTT, and it has beed used as an operational routine in the generation of SMOS L2 SSS products.…”