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Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS)

Source: http://vgomez.blogia.com, accessed on 28th, Apr. 2010

The SMOS satellite was launched on 2nd November 2009, making it the first satellite to provide continuous multi-angular L-band (1.4GHz) radiometric measurements over the globe. Over continental surfaces, SMOS provides near-surface soil moisture data at ~50km resolution with a repeat cycle of 2-3 days. The payload is a 2D interferometer yielding a range of incidence angles from 0° to 55° at both V and H polarisations, and a 1,000km swath width. Its multi-incidence angle capability is expected to assist in determining ancillary data requirements such as vegetation attenuation. This satellite has a 6:00am/pm equator overpass time (6:00am local solar time at ascending node). Due to the synthetic aperture approach of this satellite, brightness temperature observations will be processed onto a fixed hexagonal grid with an approximately 12km node separation. While the actual footprint size will vary according to position in the swath, incidence angle etc., it will be approximately 42km diameter on average. The features of SMOS are summarized below. SMOS data can be downloaded from ESA.


Mission SMOS
Sensor Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) using passive microwave 2D-interferometer concept
Spacecraft SMOS
Launch date 2nd, Nov. 2009
Design life Minimum 3 years
Orbit Sun-synchronous, dawn/dusk, quasi-circular orbit at altitude 758km. 6.00am local solar time at ascending node.
Spacecraft operations control centre CNES,Toulouse, France
Center frequency (GHz) 1.413 (L-band; 21cm)
Band width (MHz) 24
Polarisation H & V (polarimetric mode optional)
Incidence angle (°) 0-55
Swath (km) 1000
Spatial resolution (km) 35 at centre of field of view
Radiometric resolution (K) 0.8 - 2.2
Temporal resolution 3 days revisit at Equator

SMOS overpass time

The SMOS overpass times for the Murrumbidgee Catchment have been determined from the ESOV software based on the OSF file of 17th, Nov. 2009, and are provided in the table below. Date and time are in UTC.

  : Transect flight   : Patch flight
: Fully covered    

UTC Date UTC Time Flight Patch
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2010/01/18 morning      
2010/01/18 evening                      
2010/01/19 morning                      
2010/01/19 evening T00
2010/01/20 morning  
2010/01/20 evening                  
2010/01/21 morning                    
2010/01/21 evening P01                  
2010/01/22 morning                  
2010/01/22 evening  
2010/01/23 morning  
2010/01/23 evening                      
2010/01/24 morning                      
2010/01/24 evening P02    
2010/01/25 morning    
2010/01/25 evening              
2010/01/26 morning                
2010/01/26 evening                      
2010/01/27 morning                      
2010/01/27 evening P03
2010/01/28 morning  
2010/01/28 evening                      
2010/01/29 morning                      
2010/01/29 evening P04        
2010/01/30 morning        
2010/01/30 evening        
2010/01/31 morning            
2010/01/31 evening                      
2010/02/01 morning                      
2010/02/01 evening T01
2010/02/02 morning  
2010/02/02 evening                      
2010/02/03 morning                      
2010/02/03 evening              
2010/02/04 morning              
2010/02/04 evening    
2010/02/05 morning      
2010/02/05 evening                      
2010/02/06 morning                      
2010/02/06 evening P05
2010/02/07 morning  
2010/02/07 evening                  
2010/02/08 morning                    
2010/02/08 evening                    
2010/02/09 morning                  
2010/02/09 evening P07
2010/02/10 morning  
2010/02/10 evening                      
2010/02/11 morning                      
2010/02/11 evening P06    
2010/02/12 morning    
2010/02/12 evening              
2010/02/13 morning                
2010/02/13 evening                      
2010/02/14 morning                      
2010/02/14 evening P08
2010/02/15 morning  
2010/02/15 evening                      
2010/02/16 morning                      
2010/02/16 evening          
2010/02/17 morning        
2010/02/17 evening P09        
2010/02/18 morning P10          
2010/02/18 evening                      
2010/02/19 morning                      
2010/02/19 evening T02
2010/02/20 morning  
2010/02/20 evening                      
2010/02/21 morning                      
2010/02/21 evening              

SMOS TB observations

 

Source: ESA
Source: ESA

Created: January 2010
Last Modified: August 2010
Maintainer: YE Nan, Ye.Nan@monash.edu