Dear reader of this blog.As you are well aware SMOS and SMAP (and Aquarius for that matter) are delivering excellent data, demonstrating every day the usefulness and uniqueness of L Band data for monitoring certain facets of our planet. Moreover, many operational or pre-operational applications are emerging. The sad thing is that our dear satellites are like us, they don’t get younger with time. … and no follow on L Band radiometers are currently decided. We are thus facing a severe data gap if a follow-on is not very soon set up.Actually the situation is getting somewhat critical and i am convinced we should get moving quite soon on this critical issue.I thought that we could use this forum to highlight the areas the expression of needs for L band radiometry. If you have interesting elements let me know!
In the mean time see 6 years of global soil moisture as prepared by Ali Mahmoodi with 6 years of SMOS data.
Monthly evolution of soil moisture for teh first 6 years of SMOS (2010-2015)
Time flies. 7 years past. I have known SMOS for four years. When I was a postgraduate, I did some SMOS L2 soil moisture validation/calibration work, and I got the master’s degree. Now I am a Ph.D Candidate, I have been focusing on SMOS soil moisture and other soil moisture retrieval algorithms. SMOS soil moisture is not perfect well in dense vegetation area and China, I hope the post-processing method of SMOS can be improved in future. Thanks SMOS. Thanks ESA. Thanks for all staff.