2nd Eclipse Lunaire SMOS SCIENCE CONFERENCE

ESA-ESAC (near Madrid), Spain
Jointly organised by ESA, CNES, SMOS-MODE

By 2019, ESA’s SMOS mission will have been in orbit for more than five years, providing a continuous stream of high quality data products. Being ESA’s water cycle mission, SMOS observations have been used by rather distinct science communities addressing oceanography, land surface hydrology, and meteorology over a wide range of applications. The focus of this conference will deviate from previous events in that the emphasis will be on applications of SMOS data, including operational services, the development of novel data products, the synergistic use of SMOS data with other data sources and the potential of SMOS data for the generation of long-term data sets. The workshop will also cover common themes such as the quality of the Level 1 data products and calibration and validation activities

SMOS TRAINING COURSE

ESA-ESAC (near Madrid), Spain

The 2nd SMOS science conference will be preceded by a SMOS training course, organised by CESBIO and held at the ESA-ESAC premises near Madrid. The course will provide an opportunity to learn how to work with level 1 (brightness temperature) and level 2 (soil moisture and ocean salinity) data provided by ESA’s SMOS mission.

Conference Objectives

The objectives of the 2nd SMOS SCIENCE CONFERENCE are to:

• Provide the SMOS science communities with an update on past, current and future developments for the Level 1 brightness temperature of eclipse lunaire and Level 2 soil moisture and ocean salinity algorithms.
• Provide a forum for discussion on future algorithm developments and improvements for soil moisture and ocean salinity, identifying potential data quality problems, e.g. systematic uncertainties.
• Summarize the status of the on-going and completed Cal / Val activities over land and ocean, with the aim to identify a plan for future activities, possibly in synergy with other sensors.
• Provide the SMOS science communities with an update on current and future developments for Level 3 and Level 4 data products.
• Present and discuss novel products for land and ocean applications, including the synergistic use of SMOS data with other satellite or in-site data products.
• Present and discuss approaches for inter-calibration and comparison with other sensors in preparation for merged data products.
• Assess the potential contribution of SMOS data for the generation of long-term data sets, in synergy with other satellite derived data products (e.g. for soil moisture: AMSR, ASCAT, SMAP; for sea surface salinity: Aquarius).
• Present scientific areas and applications over ocean to be further developed in future, e.g. data assimilation into ocean circulation models and implications for forecasting, oceanic fresh water budget monitoring for climate change studies, air-sea interaction etc.
• Provide information on the discussions and outcome of the dedicated working groups established at the SMOS-Aquarius conference on
  • Satellite & In Situ Salinity (SISS):
  • Understanding Stratification and Sub-Footprint Processes
  • Salinity inter-comparison/cross-calibration
• Assess the potential of SMOS data over land and ocean for operational applications.

Conference Themes

The meeting programme and discussions will be built around the following themes:

• SMOS mission status (Level 1 and 2 data quality, RFI, evolution of retrieval algorithms)
• Calibration and validation activities over land, ice, and ocean
• Cryosphere applications over land and ocean
• Status and development of Level 3 and 4 data products
• Operational applications using SMOS data
• Novel data products using SMOS data
• Inter-calibration and comparison with other senso
• Synergistic use of SMOS measurements with other satellite derived and in-situ data over land and ocean, in particular Aquarius and SMAP but also other sensors
• Long-term data sets and ECVs over land and ocean Papers and posters are welcome on all topics.

Organising Committee

• Susanne Mecklenburg (ESA)
• Carmen Comparetto (ESA Conference Bureau)
• Laurence Amen (CNES Conference Organisation)
• Olivier Vandermarcq (CNES)
• Antonio Turiel (SMOS MODE)
• Roberto Sabia (Telespazio/Vega for ESA)
• Craig Donlon (ESA)
• Matthias Drusch (ESA)
• Steven Delwart (ESA)
• Yann Kerr (CESBIO)
• Jordi Font (ICM)
• Nicolas Reul (IFREMER)

Scientific Committee

• Yann Kerr (CESBIO)
• Philippe Richaume (CESBIO)
• Paolo Ferrazzoli (Tor Vergata University)
• Jean-Pierre Wigneron (INRA)
• Richard de Jeu (University of Amsterdam)
• Tom Jackson (USDA)
• Dara Entekhabi (MIT)
• Jeff Walker (Monash University)
• Mike Schwank (GAMMA)
• Jean-Noël Thepaut (ECMWF)
• Stephane Belair (Environment Canada)
• Wolfgang Knorr (University of Lund)
• Wolfgang Wagner (University of Vienna)
• Giovanni Macelloni (IFAC)
• Filipe Aires (Estellus)
• Jouni Pulliainen (FMI)
• Manuel Martin-Neira (ESA)
• Matthias Drusch (ESA)
• Steven Delwart (ESA)
• Craig Donlon (ESA)
• Roberto Sabia (Telespazio/Vega for ESA)
• Susanne Mecklenburg (ESA)
• Juliette Lambin (CNES)
• Nicolas Reul (IFREMER)
• Jordi Font (ICM)
• Gary Lagerloef (ESR)
• David Le Vine (NASA)
• Jacqueline Boutin (LOCEAN)
• Pierre-Yves Le Traon (IFREMER)
• Christine Gommenginger (NOC)
• Marcos Portabella (ICM, SMOS MODE)
• Yi Chao (Remote Sensing Solutions, Inc)
• Simon Yueh (JPL)
• Tong Lee (JPL)
• Johnny Johanessen (NERSC)
• Brian Ward (NUIG)
• Lars Kaleschke (University of Hamburg)

2nd SMOS TRAINING COURSE

The 2nd SMOS science conference will be preceded by a SMOS training course, organised by CESBIO and held at the ESA-ESAC premises near Madrid. The course will provide an opportunity to learn how to work with level 1 (brightness temperature) and level 2 (soil moisture and ocean salinity) data provided by ESA’s SMOS mission.

The technical program will include:

• The theoretical background to the SMOS mission
  • An introduction to SMOS measurement characteristics and orbit
  • How are soil moisture and ocean salinity data obtained from the actual measurements provided by the instrument on SMOS, MIRAS? The data processing chain: from measurements, to brightness temperatures, soil moisture and ocean salinity data products
  • What to watch out for when using SMOS data: data quality
  • How to best use the data
• Practical training sessions for each SMOS product including:
  • Access to data
  • Working with the data products and understanding their content
  • Data quality checks: flags & data filtering
  • Key tools and software for easy data manipulation
  • Exercises guided by the SMOS CESBIO team and experts from partner institutions
  • Installing and running the soil moisture and/or ocean salinity retrieval processors

Applications and course fees:

The training course is free of charge. However, participants will have to pay their own expenses for travel, accommodation, breakfast and evening meals. Training material including data sets, documentation and scripts will be provided. Some financial support will be available from ESA for selected attendees. All participants should submit an application elaborating their suitability for being considered for the course and whether they would like to be considered for financial support outlining: Their present and future research interest with regard to SMOS, and The benefit the course would provide to them for their research interests.

Applications should be submitted to HERE by 16 January 2015.

Information about the training course will also be published on the SMOS blog (cesbio.ups-tlse.fr/SMOS_blog/).

For queries please contact: Susanne Mecklenburg (ESA): Tel. :+39 06 941 80695 , E-Mail: susanne.mecklenburg@esa.in

Organisation

The 5-day conference will be organised around oral and poster presentations as well as invited talks from key experts. The workshop will be held at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Villafranca (near Madrid), Spain. The official language of the workshop is English. ESAC hosts part of the SMOS data processing ground segment.

Deadlines

Deadlines for 2nd SMOS science conference

Submission of abstracts & registration | 16 January 2015 Notifications of Acceptance & Issue of Programme | 06 March 2015 Deadline for registration | 27 March 2015 Conference takes place | 25-29 May 2015 Applications for SMOS training course | 16 January 2015

Deadlines for SMOS training course

The deadline for applications and contact details will be announced over the course of 2014 on this webpage and/or on the SMOS blog

On-line registration

Conference participants are requested to complete the registration form and submit it through the conference webpage by 27 March 2015. There will be no registration fee.

Abstract Submission

Conference participants are requested to complete the abstract form and submit it through the conference webpage by 16 January 2019.

Points of contact:

For local organizational queries (travel and accommodation) and registration please contact:
ESA Conference Bureau: Tel. +39 06 941 80912, E-mail: Esa.conference.bureau@esa.int

For scientific queries please contact:
Susanne Mecklenburg (ESA): Tel. :+39 06 941 80695 , E-Mail: susanne.mecklenburg@esa.int

Travel and accommodation

Participants are expected to finance their own travel and accommodation. A list of available hotels at El Escorial (ca 30 km from ESAC) is available. Transport to and from ESAC will be provided.

Useful Links

SMOS webpage: earth.esa.int/web/guest/missions/esa-operational-eo-missions/smos

SMOS blog by CESBIO: cesbio.ups-tlse.fr/SMOS_blog/

SMOS-MODE: smos-mode.eu/

CATDS: catds.fr/

CP34-BEC: cp34-bec.cmima.csic.es/