October 26th, 2009

The European Space Agency (ESA) has accepted a proposal for the OOCS team to participate in calibration/validation activities of the satellite SMOS

The ESA has accepted the proposal entitled "SMOS validation in the NW Mediterranean Sea" (SMOSCAL1.6862, IP. N. Bahamon) recently submitted by the OOCS group.

The proposal consists of providing support to calibration/validation activities of the SMOS satellite in the Mediterranean Sea. The SMOS, created for measuring sea surface salinity, will be launched next 2nd November 2009. Nevertheless, the relatively low space resolution provided by the sensor will not allow in a first phase, obtaining nearshore maps of salinity.

The continuous measurements of sea surface temperature and salinity, and profiles of current velocity and direction of the upper water layers carried out at the observation station in the Catalan Sea by the buoy instrumentation, will provide support to airborne campaigns and ESA satellites observations of the sea surface.

The team will will benefit from direct access to SMOS /MIRAS Level 2 (Ocean Salinity), ENVISAT MERIS L2 Full Res European Coverage NRT and recent - MER_FRS_2P (Last 14 days) and AQUA-TERRA/ MODIS.Level1B European coverage.