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SMOS (Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity)

Canada and SMOS

As a cooperating member of ESA, Canada is an active participant in the SMOS mission. The Canadian Space Agency's (CSA) participation and funding of Earth Observation Space Technology Programs has enabled Canadian companies to actively contribute advanced technology for demonstration on this satellite. The CSA has invested in this mission and provided support to the scientific exploitation of SMOS data through its Government Related Initiative Program.

Canadian Contributions

For the SMOS mission, Array Systems Computing Inc., is playing a key role in the development of a soil moisture processor. Array Systems is demonstrating its core expertise in signal processing interacting with scientific experts to define the requirements, and design, build and validate the Level-2 Soil Moisture processor prototype.

For this mission, the CSA has sponsored two studies, the first focused on sea surface salinity conducted by a team of scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and York University. In the second study, Array Systems surveyed Canadian interest in using SMOS near-real-time data. Five Canadian teams have been approved by ESA to receive advance data for Calibration, Validation and Scientific Applications. The Canadian Meteorological Centre will assimilate the data to improve the representation of soil moisture in its Numerical Weather Prediction model which will require SMOS near-real-time data. This work will be carried out by a team led by Canadian Government scientist Stephane Belair, who will be collaborating with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.