Title :
Ocean salinity observations with SMOS mission
Author :
Martin-Neira, M. ; Font, J. ; Srokosz, M. ; Corbella, I. ; Camps, A.
Author_Institution :
Eur. Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
Abstract :
The purpose of this paper is to present the capabilities of SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission) for the global mapping of ocean salinity from space. SMOS has been selected by the European Space Agency as the second Earth Explorer Opportunity with a launch date in June 2005. The sensor embarked on SMOS is MIRAS, a Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis. MIRAS works at L-band, in the two-polarisations, and has full polarimetric capability. The measurement of sea surface salinity (SSS) is one of the challenges of SMOS. This paper presents first the scientific requirements for a number of oceanographic applications. The scientific requirements are then translated into instrument accuracy, sensitivity, stability and spatial resolution. Major sources of error in the retrieval of ocean salinity will be addressed through an experimental campaign which is described
Keywords :
UHF devices; oceanographic equipment; oceanographic techniques; radiometers; radiometry; remote sensing; L-band; MIRAS; Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis; SMOS; Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity; UHF; equipment; global mapping; instrument; instrument accuracy; measurement technique; microwave polarimetry; ocean; salinity; satellite remote sensing; sensitivity; spatial resolution; two-polarisation; Apertures; Earth; Image sensors; L-band; Microwave imaging; Microwave radiometry; Microwave sensors; Ocean salinity; SMOS mission; Space missions;
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2000. Proceedings. IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International
Conference_Location :
Honolulu, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6359-0
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.2000.859637
