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News - General News
SMOS Tools updates
Updates for two SMOS tools have been released, offering new features and improvements.
News - Spotlight on EO community
An overview of the SMOS mission
In this video, Klaus Scipal - Biomass and SMOS Mission Manager - talks about ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission.
News - Success Stories
SMOS data reveal ecosystems' resistance to drought
Climate change is rapidly altering the world’s ecosystems, causing extreme weather conditions, such as droughts, to become increasingly frequent. Understanding the factors that contribute to ecosystem resilience to extreme events is vital to develop more effective strategies for climate adaptation and mitigation.
News - Infographics
Key facts about SMOS Level-1 and Level-2 science data
Learn about data products from the SMOS mission in our latest infographic.
News - General News
Overachieving SMOS mission primed for continued success
ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission (SMOS) was the second Earth Explorer launched in 2009. Over 13 years on, having already vastly exceeded its predicted lifetime and initial objectives, the mission has been further extended until at least the end of 2025.
News - General News
ESA's excellent Earth Explorer missions extended to 2025
Since 2009, ESA’s Earth Explorer missions have pioneered breakthrough technologies and transformed our understanding of Earth’s system, from its core to the outer stretches of the atmosphere.
News - Events and Proceedings
ESA invites scientists to submit abstracts for EGU 2023
ESA is calling for researchers to submit abstracts for sessions at the next General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU 2023).
News - Thematic area articles
Satellites investigate Earth’s terrestrial hydrosphere
ESA’s Earth observation satellites are playing a leading role in furthering our understanding of how Earth’s water cycle is being influenced by humankind.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellites reveal changes to Earth’s icy zones
ESA’s Earth observation activities are helping scientists investigate the influence of climate change on widespread ice-losses across the planet.
Event - Training
EO Summer School 3
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.
News - Thematic area articles
Transforming space data into climate action
ESA’s Earth observation activities are playing a key role in the revitalised global drive to combat climate change.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellite data central to ocean monitoring
Over 95% of Earth’s water is found in our oceans, and yet sadly, oceans are under stress from climate change and pollution. Monitoring our oceans is vital for Earth’s survival and satellites are the primary means of long-term and independent observation of our vast ocean bodies and their associated coastal zones.
News - Data Release news
SMOS L2 Sea Surface Salinity products documentation updates
SMOS L2 Sea Surface Salinity product validation report is now available.
News - Data Release news
SMOS sea ice thickness Arctic winter season 2021/2022 data available
SMOS Sea Ice thickness level 3 and level 4 data products are now available for the Arctic winter season 2021/2022.
News - Data Release news
Eight years of SMOS Arctic sea ice thickness level now available from SMOS Data dissemination portal
Daily maps of sea ice thickness based on SMOS Observations, covering the winter seasons in the Arctic for the period of October-April from year 2010/2011 to year 2017/2018, are now available.
News - Data Release news
SMOS level 1 and level 2 products new baseline is now available
New versions of the SMOS processors for level 1 and 2 were deployed in the operational ground segment on 25 May 2021.
Event - Workshop
Understanding the Carbon and Water Cycles using SMOS Data and Models
The workshop aimed to bring together the EO, SMOS, Earth system science and modelling communities involved in the observation, characterisation and forecasting of land surface processes and their impacts.
Document - General Reference
SMOS Multimedia Book
Learn more about ESA's SMOS mission in the interactive SMOS Multimedia Book.
Data - Data Description
SMOS Tropical Cyclone Wind Radii Fixes
The SMOS WRF product is available in Near Real Time to support tropical cyclones (TC) forecasts. It is generated within 4 to 6 hours from sensing from the SMOS L2 swath wind speed products, in the so-called "Fix (F-deck)" format compatible with the US Navy's ATCF (Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecasting) System. The SMOS WRF "fixes" to the best-track forecasts contain: the SMOS 10-min maximum-sustained winds (in knots) and wind radii (in nautical miles) for the 34 kt (17 m/s), 50 kt (25 m/s) and 64 kt (33 m/s) winds per geographical storm quadrants, and for each SMOS pass intercepting a TC in all the active ocean basins.
Data - Data Description
SMOS - CryoSat L4 Sea Ice Thickness
The SMOS-CryoSat merged Sea Ice Thickness Level 4 product, in NetCDF format, is based on estimates from both the MIRAS and the SIRAL instruments with a significant reduction in the relative uncertainty for the thickness of the thin ice. A weekly averaged preliminary product is generated every day by the Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI) by merging the weekly CryoSat Sea Ice Thickness product and the daily SMOS Sea Ice Thickness retrieval. A final product is provided with a latency of about 3-4 weeks using a different global sea ice concentration product and a reprocessed CryoSat product. All grids are projected onto the 25 km EASE2 Grid based on a polar aspect spherical Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. The grid dimension is 5400 x 5400 km, equal to a 432 x 432 grid centered on the geographic Pole. Coverage is limited to the October-April (winter) period for the Northern Hemisphere, due to the melting season, from year 2010 onwards.