Conference Objectives

SMOS soil moisture on 31 May and 2 June 2013, when heavy rainfall has led
to disastrous flooding in central Europe (blue indicates wet soil, yellow/orange dry soil).
Credit: CESBIO/ESA

"The objectives of the 2nd SMOS SCIENCE CONFERENCE are to:

• Provide the SMOS science communities with an update on past, current and future developments for the Level 1 brightness temperature and Level 2 soil moisture and ocean salinity algorithms.
  
• Provide a forum for discussion on future algorithm developments and improvements for soil moisture and ocean salinity, identifying potential data quality problems, e.g. systematic uncertainties.
  
• Summarize the status of the on-going and completed Cal / Val activities over land and ocean, with the aim to identify a plan for future activities, possibly in synergy with other sensors.
  
• Provide the SMOS science communities with an update on current and future developments for Level 3 and Level 4 data products.
  
• Present and discuss novel products for land and ocean applications, including the synergistic use of SMOS data with other satellite or in-site data products.
  
• Present and discuss approaches for inter-calibration and comparison with other sensors in preparation for merged data products.
  
• Assess the potential contribution of SMOS data for the generation of long-term data sets, in synergy with other satellite derived data products (e.g. for soil moisture: AMSR, ASCAT, SMAP; for sea surface salinity: Aquarius).
  
• Present scientific areas and applications over ocean to be further developed in future, e.g. data assimilation into ocean circulation models and implications for forecasting, oceanic fresh water budget monitoring for climate change studies, air-sea interaction etc.
  
• Provide information on the discussions and outcome of the dedicated working groups established at the SMOS-Aquarius conference on
  • Satellite & In Situ Salinity (SISS)
    Understanding Stratification and Sub-Footprint Processes
  • Salinity inter-comparison/cross-calibration
• Assess the potential of SMOS data over land and ocean for operational applications

SMOS derived sea ice thickness over the Arctic. See the webstory HERE.
Credit: University of Hamburg/ESA

SMOS captured wind speed up to 140 km/h for these three typhoons during 10–15 October 2013.
See the webstory HERE. Credit: ESA/IFREMER/CLS/CATDS/CNES.