SMOS first data analysis for sea surface salinity determination

Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity SMOS, launched on 2 November 2009, is the first satellite mission addressing sea surface salinity SSS measurement from space. Its unique payload is the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis MIRAS, a new two-dimensional interferometer designed by the European Space Agency ESA and operating at the L-band frequency. This article presents a summary of SSS retrieval from SMOS observations and shows initial results obtained one year after launch. These results are encouraging, but also indicate that further improvements at various data processing levels are needed and hence are currently under investigation.