Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) is the second Earth Explorer Opportunity mission developed as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet programme. SMOS ws launched on 02 November 2009. The SMOS mission provides two-dimensional interferometric radiometer measurements of L-band (1.4 GHz) brightness temperature from a satellite in polar orbit. At this frequency the atmosphere is almost transparent and surface emission is strongly related to soil moisture over continental surfaces and salinity over oceans (www.esa.int/esaLP/LPsmos.html).
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