- All Categories (24)
- Data (3)
- News (10)
- Missions (1)
- Events (7)
- Activities (1)
- Documents (2)
Event - Meeting
World Ocean Circulation User Consultation Meeting 2019
The World Ocean Circulation User Consultation Meeting took place in 2019 with the aim to prepare a roadmap for new initiatives on ocean circulation research and applications.
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
The-Changing-Earth-New-Scientific-Challenges-for-ESAs-Living-Planet-Programme.pdf
This article is extracted from ESA Bulletin Nr. 129.
Document - General Reference
The Science and Research Elements of ESA Living Planet Programme
This document presents the plans for the Earth Explorer element of the European Space Agency's 'Living Planet' Programme for Earth Observation.
News - Thematic area articles
Space data support Earth’s ecosystems
ESA’s Earth observation (EO) missions are making a critical contribution to monitoring transformations in our planet’s ecosystems, helping track changes in the vegetation, soil, and ocean that affect these systems.
Event - Workshop
Space and the Arctic 2009 Workshop
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at an unprecedented rate. This workshop looked at the needs and challenges of working and living in the rapidly changing Arctic and explore how space-based services might help to meet those needs.
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 NRT L2 Swath Wind Speed
SMOS retrieved surface wind speed gridded maps (with a spatial sampling of 1/4 x 1/4 degrees) are available in NetCDF format. Each product contains parts of ascending and descending orbits and it is generated by Ifremer, starting from the SMOS L1B data products, in Near Real Time i.e. within 4 to 6 hours from sensing time. Before using this dataset, please check the read-me-first note available in the Resources section below.
Data - Data Description
SMOS L3 Daily Wind Speed
SMOS L3WS products are daily composite maps of the collected SMOS L2 swath wind products for a specific day, provided with the same grid than the Level 2 wind data (SMOS L2WS NRT) but separated into ascending and descending passes. This product is available the day after sensing from Ifremer, in NetCDF format. Before using this dataset, please check the read-me-first note available in the Resources section below.
News - Operational News
SMOS data outage since 22 February 2024
SMOS went into safe mode on 22 February 2024 at 05:10 UTC for reasons that are still under investigation.
News - Operational News
SMOS data distribution resumed
SMOS data distribution to end users was resumed on 12 March 2024 after confirmation of the adequate quality of the current data.
Mission - Earth Explorers
SMOS
The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is dedicated to making global observations of soil moisture over land and salinity over oceans.
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 - Thematic area articles
Satellite data boost global understanding of land surface
Understanding our changing land surface is essential in the study of climate change. Satellites are used to monitor changes to the material that covers Earth’s surface, so-called land cover, such as vegetation and water.
News - Thematic area articles
Remote sensing data underpin research on soil
Environmental data disseminated by ESA’s Earth observation programmes provide knowledge about the stresses on Earth’s soils – aiding many applications such as crop management, drought and flood forecasting, and ecosystem protection.
News - General News
Pioneering science missions: Summarising ESA’s Earth Explorers
Designed for research purposes, ESA's Earth Explorer missions are dedicated to monitoring parts of Earth’s system. Learn more about the Earth Explorers in this video.
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 - Data Release news
New reanalysis dataset impacts SMOS Level 3 and 4 sea ice thickness
On 24 January 2024 the JRA55 reanalysis dataset was terminated and updated with the Japanese Reanalysis for Three Quarters of a Century.
Event - Conference
Living Planet Symposium 2019
ESA's Living Planet Symposia are amongst the biggest Earth observation conferences in the world. Scientists present their latest findings on Earth's environment and climate.
News - Thematic area articles
Global understanding of Earth's land surfaces greatly boosted by satellite data
ESA perform land surface monitoring with a range of instruments onboard satellites acquiring optical and radar data. Collections of data from these missions are freely available for research purposes.