The SMOS Soil Moisture Retrieval Algorithm

Smos Smap Synergisms for the Retrieval of Soil Moisture

It is clear there is a dire need of both soil moisture measurements and sea surface salinity retrievals as they are key parameters of the Earth system. To access them in a global and reliable fashion it seems that – even if complemented by other measurements, L-band radiometry is currently the best choice. The advantages are linked to an optimal trade off between high sensitivity to soil moistu...

Soil moisture retrieval from space: the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission

Microwave radiometry at low frequencies (L-band: 1.4 GHz, 21 cm) is an established technique for estimating surface soil moisture and sea surface salinity with a suitable sensitivity. However, from space, large antennas (several meters) are required to achieve an adequate spatial resolution at L-band. So as to reduce the problem of putting into orbit a large filled antenna, the possibility of u...

A Novel Bias Correction Method for Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Soil Moisture: Retrieval Ensembles

Bias correction is a very important pre-processing step in satellite data assimilation analysis, as data assimilation itself cannot circumvent satellite biases. We introduce a retrieval algorithm-specific and spatially heterogeneous Instantaneous Field of View (IFOV) bias correction method for Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) soil moisture. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first...

SMOS level 2 Processor for Soil Moisture

Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval within the ESA Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Mission

The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission will provide from 2007 onwards global maps of soil moisture over land and sea surface salinity over ocean. The radiometry group of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona has been involved either in the definition of the SMOS single payload, MIRAS (Microwave Imaging Radiometer by Aperture Synthesis), or in the organization of ...