An l-band interferometric radiometer mission

摘要

The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission is a joint ESA/CNES/CDTI Earth Observation programselected as ESA Earth Explorer Mission with a launch planned in November 2009. The objective of the SMOSmission is to provide Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity maps, both key variables in climate monitoring,surface/atmosphere and ocean/atmosphere transfers.The SMOS spacecraft used a platform derived from the CNES / Thales Alenia Space PROTEUS genericplatform adapted to the mission specificities . The payload provided by ESA is a L-Band passive interferometricradiometer based on a synthetic aperture antenna concept.The SMOS Satellite Operations Ground Segment, in charge of operating and controlling the satellite, has beenadapted by CNES from a generic PROTEUS ground segment.A SMOS Data Processing Ground Segment, devoted to acquire, process, and dispatch the SMOS Levels 1 and 2products, has been developed by ESA . A Centre Aval de Traitement des Donnees SMOS developed by CNES incooperation with IFREMER will process and dispatch the SMOS scientific data at levels 3 and 4.An overview of the SMOS mission will be addressed by this paper with attention put on the CNES specificcontribution in the frame of this cooperation.