Retrieved sea surface salinity spatial variability using high resolution data within the soil moisture and ocean salinity (SMOS) mission

The soil moisture and ocean salinity mission will deliver from 2008 onwards global sea surface salinity estimations over the oceans. In this paper, efforts have been devoted to the analysis of horizontal retrieved salinity variability and to the capabilities of the SMOS-derived data to resolve different-scale observed oceanographic features. Statistics of the error have been provided using input/auxiliary data at increasingly higher spatial resolution.