As ESA's SMOS satellite celebrates 10 years in orbit, yet another result has been added to its list of successes. This remarkable satellite mission has shown that it can be used to measure how the temperature of the Antarctic ice sheet changes with depth – and it's much warmer deep down.

SMOS has been in orbit for a decade. This remarkable satellite has not only exceeded its planned life in orbit, but also surpassed its original scientific goals.

Hagibis was the biggest typhoon to hit Japan in decades. With extreme events like this likely to increase in number and in severity as a consequence of climate change, satellites are playing an increasingly important role in understanding and tracking huge storms.

Due to a software maintenance on Wednesday 30 October, the following downtimes are scheduled:

• ERS and Envisat dissemination service: from 09:00 to 11:00 CET
• SMOS data dissemination service: from 11:00 to 13:00 CET.

Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the SMOS mission, which was launched on 2 November 2009. To celebrate the occasion, ESA is organising a symposium "Earth Explorers for Climate - The contribution from SMOS" which will take place at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, from 18 to 20 March 2020.

A planned software maintenance activity will affect the SMOS data dissemination service on Thursday 10 October, from 09:30 to 11:30 CEST.

A planned software maintenance activity will affect the SMOS data dissemination service on Monday 22 July during the following times:

• From 09:00 to 11:30 CEST – no access to the SMOS data collections.
• From 11:30 to 13:30 CEST – ingestion / publication of new products delayed.

Due to a scheduled software maintenance on 24 June 2019 from 09:00 to 11:30 CEST, the ingestion of new SMOS products on the ESA SMOS online dissemination service will be delayed until the maintenance is completed.

As of yesterday, 11 June 2019, measurements from ESA's SMOS mission are being fully integrated into ECMWF's forecasting system, allowing for a more accurate description of water content in soil.

The length and precision with which climate scientists can track the salinity, or saltiness, of the oceans is set to improve dramatically according to researchers working as part of ESA's Climate Change Initiative.