SMOS L1 and L2: Calibrated Satellite Data for Soil Moisture and Sea Salinity

ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission provides Level 1 calibrated instrument measurements and Level 2 retrieved geophysical data. Level 1 products include calibrated visibilities and reconstructed brightness temperature images, while Level 2 products contain geo-located soil moisture and sea surface salinity estimates. Data is processed by the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) and includes both operational and reprocessed file classes.

Use Cases

• Retrieve soil moisture estimates based on Level 2 geo-located soil moisture product data.
• Analyze sea surface salinity based on Level 2 sea surface salinity retrieval data.
• Work with calibrated brightness temperatures based on Level 1C multi angular brightness temperature data.
• Apply image reconstruction algorithms based on Level 1A interferometric visibility measurements.

Strengths

• Data includes both operational (OPER) and reprocessed (REPR) file classes for different analysis needs.
• Level 1C products provide brightness temperatures at a spatial resolution in the range of 30-50 km.
• Products are consolidated in pole-to-pole files covering 50 minutes of sensing time per half orbit.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

European Space Agency (ESA), processed at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC).

Collection Method

Data from the SMOS satellite's MIRAS instrument, processed through the SMOS Data Processing Ground Segment (DPGS).

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not specified in the provided input.

Freshness

Update frequency is unknown.

Geography

Global coverage, with data files consolidated on a pole-to-pole basis.