On systematic biases between modeled and measured SMOS brightness temperature

Two years after the launch of SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) in November 2009, the level 1C brightness temperatures processed with the ESA SMOS L1 operational prototype v504, the up-to-date ESA reprocessing version, were released. Systematic biases of several Kelvins, which depend on the location of the measurement in the field of view, are still observed between averaged TB measurements and simulations. Biases in the field of view derived from comparisons between measurements and simulations (the so-called Ocean Target Transformations, OTTs) during 38 periods in phase with the NIR calibration events from June 2010 to December 2012 are analyzed.