SMOS in SMAP Calibration and Validation
Jackson, Thomas1; Bindlish, Rajat1; O'Neill, Peggy2; Kerr, Yann3; Chan, Steven4; Colliander, Andreas4
1USDA Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab, UNITED STATES; 2NASA, UNITED STATES; 3CESBIO, FRANCE; 4Jet Propulsion Lab, California Institute of Technology, UNITED STATES

The ESA Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS, launched 2009) and NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP, scheduled launch 2014) satellite missions share two characteristics; both provide L-band brightness temperature and surface soil moisture at the same nominal spatial resolution and frequency. SMOS data have been used in the development of the SMAP radiometer-only soil moisture algorithm. Having actual L-band brightness temperature, as well as retrieved soil moisture, available has allowed the assessment of alternative algorithm approaches during the pre-launch phased of SMAP. Accomplishing this has required the development of re-processing methods to make SMOS data look like SMAP radiometer observations. Comparisons of the soil moisture products provided by the SMOS and SMAP algorithms has been valuable and provides a path for data integration once SMAP is operational. These ongoing analyses will be presented. Under the assumption that SMOS will continue to operate, we will fully exploit its data when SMAP launches by using the reprocessed brightness temperature as a radiometer calibration resource and the SMOS soil moisture for validation. An overview of the SMAP calibration/validation plan will be reviewed in this presentation. In the longer term, there is scientific value for both research and applications in merging the SMOS and SMAP data sets to provide a much longer climate data record of brightness temperature and surface soil moisture. The potential mission overlap of SMOS and SMAP will facilitate this integration and the reprocessing of the SMOS to SMOS-SMAP provides a basis for an approach.