1. STSE

2. Objectives of today

3. Data availability

4. Reprocessing

5. RFI

6. Conferences & user meetings

Introduction – SMOS mission status

DATA AVAILABILITYIn summary …

FROM 100% SCIENCE DATA AVAILABLE

1. ACQUISITION: no data loss due to overlap of 2 orbits so far

2. CALIBRATION: 1.68%

3. ANOMALIES:

• in Q4 2011: 0.016% loss of data, 0.342% degraded data

• since May 2010 0.14 (0.16)% loss of data, 2.70 (3.13) % degraded data

improvement due to CCU reset automatic procedure since Oct 2011

4. DATA PROCESSING: successfully processed to L1, L2SM, L2OS in 99.5%

5. NRT: delivered in 84.6 (84.2 in Q4/2012) % of the sensing time within the

requirement of 165 minutes

REPROCESSINGStatus

1. Level 1 • Reprocessing completed at the beginning of January (performance 1:20)• Reprocessed data delivered to Brockmann cal&val portal and presently

ingested and validated, distribution should start end February

2. Level 2 soil moisture • Reprocessing completed at CNES/CESBIO • Quality assessment ongoing: once completed reprocessed data will go to

ESAC and Brockmann for distribution• Dissemination will start end of February

3. Level 2 ocean salinity reprocessing and NRT conversion • Has started w/c 6 Feb • Expected to be completed by mid March• Dissemination from Brockmann to start end of March

ECMWF reduced

Gaussian Grid

Number of nodes

% of DGG grid

% of DGG over land

(threshold = 50%)

T511 348.528 (100%)

13.3% 101.197 (3.9%)

T799 843.490 (100%)

32.2% 244.428 (9.32%)

Scientific requirements- full angular resolution- no averaging of TBs in the antenna reference frame- regular grid- land coverage

Specifications:- T511 spectral resolution /N265

reduced Gaussian Grid- land points only- no interpolation, processor

will use a “light” NRT AUX_DGG file

UK Met Office“light” NRTBUFR product

ESA

Distribution

NRT light productDistribution and product specification

RFI over oceans

Continental regions are not the only ones affected by RFI

Effect of RFI over Oceans:

– Due to terrestrial RFIs that can affect larger areas, including of course neighboring oceans

And also

– Due to RFI emitters on board certain ships have been observed to emit in the protected band.

RFI source observed during a SMOS descending

pass over the Atlantic Ocean (BT Map)

RFI over oceans

In-situ

April 2010 ascending April 2010 descending

Largest contamination Northern hemisphere high latitude, particularly over the North Pacific and Atlantic oceans and during ascending passes

How the RFI impact is seen? Quasi-circumpolar belt of high brightness levels (+30 K wrt ocean brightness temp fresher waters) polluting data acquired North of 40°N latitude RFI source: compatible with radar systems in

Northern America and Southern tip of Greenland.

Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) Measurements of approx 32-38 psu over open ocean (practical salinity unit) with 0.1-0.2 psu accuracy after 1 month of data aggregation as requirement;

Variation of 1 K corresponds to 1 psu

Permanent RFI-induced signal > 0.1 K for 1 month is critical

© N.Reul, Ifremer

RFI over Northern Latitudes

SMOS brightness temperaturesFeb 2011

Several radars are observed over the Northern Canadian border and at the tip of Greenland.

The authorities from Canada and Greenland were informed, and requested to take actions.

Feb 2011

RFI over Northern Latitudes

SMOS brightness temperatures Feb 2012

Canada started to refurbish their equipment in autumn 2011.

Greenland switched their transmitters off in March 2011.

At least 13 RFIs have been switched Off in the Northern Latitudes.

However the few remaining RFIs can contaminate areas 3000 Km away from the original source, especially in passes descending towards North-America.

Feb 2012

RFI over Southern Latitudes

Southern hemisphere is far less RFI contaminated.

So far, no RFIs has ever been detected in Antarctica.

17/03/1

0

18/05/1

0

01/06/1

0

15/09/1

0

01/12/1

0

15/04/1

1

28/05/1

1

18/07/1

1

20/10/1

1

30/01/1

20

20406080

100120

1 10 14 18

4960

94 104 107 111

1 2 3 5 11 14 17 19 19 19

Evolution of RFIs OFF in Europe (Jan. 2012)

RFIs OFFCountries

RFI progress in Europe / World

IN THE REST OF THE WORLD

Canada has switched Off 11 radars

US has switched off 13 RFIs

32 RFIs in China have disappeared, after some actions taken by the Chinese authorities.

IN EUROPE

Conferences and meetings

1. SMOS session at Microrad in March

2. EGU SMOS session merged with “Remote sensing of soil moisture”

and “Ocean remote sensing”

3. Ocean user meeting at EGU, Thursday 26 April

4. IGARSS 40 + abstracts for 3 invited sessions

5. Land user meeting planned