Overview of SMOS Level 2 Ocean Salinity processing and first results

SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity), launched in November 2, 2009 is the first satellite mission addressing the salinity measurement from space through the use of MIRAS (Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis), a new two-dimensional interferometer designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operating at L-band. This paper presents a summary of the sea surface salinity retrieval approach implemented in SMOS, as well as first results obtained after completing the mission commissioning phase in May 2010. A large number of papers have been published about salinity remote sensing and its implementation in the SMOS mission. An extensive list of references is provided here, many authored by the SMOS ocean salinity team, with emphasis on the different physical processes that have been considered in the SMOS salinity retrieval algorithm.