Chapter 3
SMOS and Aquarius/SAC-D Missions:
The Era of Spaceborne Salinity Measurements
is About to Begin
Gary Lagerloef and Jordi Font
3.1 Introduction
During the Oceans from Space Venice 2000 meeting a decade ago, a friendly wager
was made among a few participants. The potential for salinity measurement from
space was a topic of lively discussion at a Special Session on Salinity Remote
Sensing. There were some promising developments presented indicating that this
capability would be achieved during decade ahead. The European Space Agency
(ESA) pathfinder Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission had been selected
in 1999. Meanwhile, NASA scientists were actively planning a pathfinder salinity
mission proposal for a mid-2001 deadline, eventually to be named Aquarius. It was
then estimated that these missions would be launched as early as mid-decade. Some
participants were quite skeptical. After all, the scientific accuracy required is ∼0.2
pss (practical salinity scale 1978), which equates to about
1 / 2 pinch of salt in a bottle of wine. So the wager was made, with a bottle of wine at stake, whether or not
satellite-based salinity measurements would be presented at Oceans for Space 2010.
The wager’s outcome is still unresolved, and will be decided at the 2010 meeting,
although the odds may slightly favor the proponents. SMOS was launched successfully into orbit November 2nd, 2009. After a lengthy checkout period, preliminary
data will be available to the science validation team about 2 months prior to the
Oceans from Space 2010 meeting. Every effort will be made to have some preliminary results to show. Meanwhile, the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, a partnership
between NASA and Argentina is now planned for launch in the Fall 2010, several
months after the Oceans from Space 2010 meeting.
The past decade clearly has seen major progress, both technically and scientifically, toward meeting the challenge of measuring ocean salinity from space. This
paper presents some of the history of this decade of progress, by describing the
development of the SMOS and Aquarius/SAC-D missions and their scientific capabilities. The timely completion and launch of these satellite missions indicates that
G. Lagerloef (B)
Earth and Space Research, Seattle, WA 98121, USA
e-mail: Lager@esr.org
35
V. Barale et al. (eds.), Oceanography from Space,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_3, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
SMOS and Aquarius/SAC-D Missions:
The Era of Spaceborne Salinity Measurements
is About to Begin
Gary Lagerloef and Jordi Font
3.1 Introduction
During the Oceans from Space Venice 2000 meeting a decade ago, a friendly wager
was made among a few participants. The potential for salinity measurement from
space was a topic of lively discussion at a Special Session on Salinity Remote
Sensing. There were some promising developments presented indicating that this
capability would be achieved during decade ahead. The European Space Agency
(ESA) pathfinder Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission had been selected
in 1999. Meanwhile, NASA scientists were actively planning a pathfinder salinity
mission proposal for a mid-2001 deadline, eventually to be named Aquarius. It was
then estimated that these missions would be launched as early as mid-decade. Some
participants were quite skeptical. After all, the scientific accuracy required is ∼0.2
pss (practical salinity scale 1978), which equates to about
1 / 2 pinch of salt in a bottle of wine. So the wager was made, with a bottle of wine at stake, whether or not
satellite-based salinity measurements would be presented at Oceans for Space 2010.
The wager’s outcome is still unresolved, and will be decided at the 2010 meeting,
although the odds may slightly favor the proponents. SMOS was launched successfully into orbit November 2nd, 2009. After a lengthy checkout period, preliminary
data will be available to the science validation team about 2 months prior to the
Oceans from Space 2010 meeting. Every effort will be made to have some preliminary results to show. Meanwhile, the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, a partnership
between NASA and Argentina is now planned for launch in the Fall 2010, several
months after the Oceans from Space 2010 meeting.
The past decade clearly has seen major progress, both technically and scientifically, toward meeting the challenge of measuring ocean salinity from space. This
paper presents some of the history of this decade of progress, by describing the
development of the SMOS and Aquarius/SAC-D missions and their scientific capabilities. The timely completion and launch of these satellite missions indicates that
G. Lagerloef (B)
Earth and Space Research, Seattle, WA 98121, USA
e-mail: Lager@esr.org
35
V. Barale et al. (eds.), Oceanography from Space,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_3, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010