1. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Level 2 Ocean Salinity Processor Commissioning Plan 7 May 2009 ARGANS ACRI-ST ICM-CSIC LOCEAN-IPSL IFREMER

2. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 First look Southern Pacific Ocean orbits over region far from land: 120°W and 150°W, 30°S and the equator

3. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Compare L1c brightness temperatures (BT) with L2 direct models, including ground-truth geophysical parameters (wind speed, SST, SSS) – far from land, relatively homogeneous & well monitored ocean region – scatter plots of L1c and L2OS_fwd TBs by grid point (+ distance to ground track) & snapshot If biases > ± 1K OS cannot be retrieved without correction First look

4. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Long term compare L1c BT with L2 direct models verify T3, radiometric accuracy error autocorrelation Acard/sea-ice detection verify retrieved parameters with climatology optical data matching tuning direct models examine distance to coast thresholds effects

5. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Priority 1 Goal: comparison of L1c brightness temperatures with L2 OS direct models using ECMWF forcing – open ocean: ascending and descending orbits over well monitored homogeneous salinity regions – plot average, stdev, of differences in FOV referential (cos dir geometry) – plot average, stdev, of differences per grid point

6. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Priority 1 Goal: verification of T3 – comparison of L1c T3 with L2 direct models – open ocean with relatively homogeneous SSS Goal: radiometric accuracy wrt FOV mean TB & autocorrelation of the error – plot radiometric accuracy with FOV trend removed – compare autocorrelation of the temperature residuals TB(L1c) - TB(L2OS) to the WEF

7. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Priority 2 Goal: comparison of L1c brightness temperatures with L2 OS direct models using retrieved parameters or ECMWF forcing – plot average, std, skewness, kurtosis of differences in FOV (cos dir geometry) – plot Tx and Ty as function of incidence angle (pointing) – histograms of the differences in TBs, dividing measurements into AF-FOV and EAF-FOV classes

8. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Priority 2 Goal: verification of the radiometric noise – plot Var(Tbmodel-Tbmeasured_DP) / Var(Tbmodel-Tbmeasured_FP) in FOV – plot Var(Tbmodel-Tbmeasured) wrt distance to boresight Goal: Acard/sea-ice detection – look at compatibility between retrieved Acard and known values of dielectric constants

9. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Priority 3 & 4 goals comparison of L1c brightness temperatures with L2 OS direct models verification of retrieved parameters based on climatology (FP and DP) and other classes optical data matching tuning direct models distance to coast thresholds effects

10. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 High coverage test sites North Atlantic SW tropical Pacific South of Tasmania Equatorial Tarfaya model region Amazon Plume Gulf of Biscay Mediterranean Sea Test sites: 70-80% availability (time): Southern Pacific Ocean (first look) 100% availability before KP1; 60-70% afterwards

11. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Operational Monitoring Facility sites TAO-PIRATA & moored buoys (16), ±1 degree, filter data using L2 OS global quality indicators, extract average, std for every intersecting orbit: – ECMWF Sea_Surface_Temperature, Significant_Wave_Height, Wind_Zonal_Lowest_Level, Wind_Meridonal_Lowest_Level – L2 OS SSS from forward models 1, 2 & 3 – MIR_BWSD1C BT_VALUE

12. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Schedule First look: – ESL collocation at ESAC 2-3 weeks after launch (KP0/first image), for first look image analysis Priority 1: – preliminary dual & full pol report for KP1 (estimate of L1c accuracy) – radiometric accuracy assessment & analysis of dual versus full for KP2 & SVRT release decision – report comparing dual & full pol for KP3

13. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Schedule Priority 2: – if good progress with priority 1: preliminary dual pol report for KP1 – otherwise preliminary dual pol report for KP2 – report comparing dual & full pol for KP3 Priority 3 & 4 (only if priority 1 & 2 successful): – report for KP3

14. www.argans.co.uk SMOS L2 Ocean Salinity Commissioning Plan, 07/05/2009 Questions What is the role of each KP? When will first calibrated data be available for our Southern Pacific site? For calibration frequency analysis, will we get the complete data set used to generate the L1c products? What metric will be used to determine calibration frequency?