Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval In The SMOS Configuration: Simulation Performance Study

摘要

This paper has presented the results of a simulation study to assess the SSS retrieval capabilities of SMOS. It is found that an ideal instrument without spatial averaging can achieve in most cases the 0.1 psu SSS accuracy goal with 30-day temporal averaging, and without spatial averaging. Only in 1 out of 4 cases, with strong winds and rapid SSS and SST variations, the SSS accuracy is higher (0.2 psu). Instrumental biases must be kept to a very low level (I_(bias) < 0.22 K) as well as geophysical modelling errors. Differences between dielectric constant models and wind speed sensitivities lead by themselves, to non-compliance of the 0.1 psu goal. Therefore, the dielectric constant and the sensitivity to wind speed (sea state + foam) must be better determined. Further research is focused on the analysis of other error sources using SEPS.