SMOS: a satellite to measure soil moisture and ocean salinity. SMOS : un satellite pour mesurer l’humidité des sols et la salinité des océans

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Wigneron, Jean-Pierre

Edité par CCSD -

National audience. On 2 November 2009, in the context of a European Space Agency (ESA) mission, the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite was launched to detect soil moisture and ocean salinity. These important characteristics control the mass and energy cycles between the terrestrial surface and the atmosphere. Knowledge of them at a global scale is of value to climatic and meteorological research – notably with a view to improving predictive models – and to environmental research (particularly regarding evaluations of the impact of drought). The INRA Research Unit on Functional Ecology and Environmental Physics (EPHYSE) in Bordeaux participated in this programme initiated jointly with the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Spanish Centro para el Desarrollo Teccnologico industriel (CDTI). Now that the satellite has been in orbit for more than a year, scientists are able to reveal the initial results obtained.

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