Meridional variability in SMOS salinity retrievals: Trade-off between sensitivity to geophysical effects and increased temporal sampling

Simulated SMOS salinity retrievals in different algorithm configurations have been studied with the aim of analysing the possible meridional variability due to the increased sampling at mid-high latitudes. Geophysical effects oppose to this potential improvement, therefore a trade-off study has been performed in realistic scenarios. Preliminary results indicate that the cost function settings are significantly determining the evolution of the performances with the latitude. The balancing of the cost function different terms will have to be a mandatory step in the forthcoming satellite commissioning phase analysis.