| SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity), launched in November 2, 2009,
is the first satellite mission addressing the sea surface salinity
measurement from space. Its unique payload is MIRAS (Microwave Imaging
Radiometer using 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 approach implemented in
SMOS to retrieve sea surface salinity and the first results obtained one
year after launch, together with an overview of the main problems
encountered so far in this novel salinity remote sensing attempt.
Despite the SMOS technical and scientific challenges, the first
spaceborne ocean salinity maps have been derived. However, further
improvements at the various data processing levels are required to
achieve the mission objectives. |