1. Aquarius Soil Moisture Working Group July 21, 2010

2. Aquarius Soil Moisture Working Group Summary Provide science algorithms and data validation for retrieving soil moisture from combined Aquarius and MWR sensor data, and other ancillary data as needed. – Land Surface Temperature (LST) should be included (from MWR) – Membership: NASA and CONAE projects (and SMOS) Today: Preliminary plan to address activities over 3 phases (pre-launch, IOC, IOC+6 months): need to focus on what is critical!

3. Aquarius Soil Moisture Working Group Summary Today: Preliminary plan to address activities over 3 phases: Need to focus on what is critical! – Pre-launch Add a baseline SM algorithm to Aquarius data system More interaction with MWR (data steam merger, geolocation) MOU with SMOS (Simulated Aquarius products, Cal/Val resources) Establish validation infrastructure (Agreements, funding in Argentina, standards. timeliness) – IOC Review data over land as it becomes available – IOC+6 months Validation and resources (see slide) MWR integration (NWF LST at launch)

4. Validation Plan for Aquarius Soil Moisture Product (IOC-6 months) Global satellite-base soil moisture products – SMOS, AMSR-E, and WindSat Global model-based soil moisture products – NCEP, MERRA. ECMWF Core Validation Sites – USA: OK, GA, AZ, ID – Argentina: ?? – Canada: SK, BERMS – Australia: Yanco+ – Spain: Valencia (Coastline?), Salamanca – Germany – France – N. Africa In Situ Networks – USA: SCAN, CRN

5. Collaboration with SMOS “Special” Aquarius simulator TB product? Post-launch L2 soil moisture product for validation of Aquarius soil moisture product Access to SMOS in situ validation resources