Earth Explorers for Climate - The contribution from SMOS

This symposium will explore address the use of a decade of SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) data for climate research. Many processes, especially related to climate, occur on temporal and spatial scales that are well beyond the lifetime of an individual mission. Ten years of SMOS data are hence a valuable long-term consistent satellite data records to study these processes and to understand changes in the Earth System, for example in the global water or carbon cycle. In addition, longer data records increase the level of confidence in estimating extreme events, such as droughts or tropical cyclones.

The symposium is open to scientists and engineers interested in exploring the capabilities of 10 years of SMOS data, also in synergy with other space or ground based data sources, for climate applications.

The topics that will be discussed are:

• Relevance of 10 years of SMOS data for climate research and international climate activities (Sustainable Development Goals, Space Climate Observatory, Global Climate Observing System, Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change etc)
• Contribution of SMOS to water cycle research
• Contribution of SMOS to carbon cycle research
• SMOS data product validation and uncertainty estimation
• Re-processing of measurements and generation of FCDRs and TCDRs
• SMOS as part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI)
• Synergies with current and future EO missions