As you are very well aware, SMOS was launched on November 2nd 2009. the commissioning phase ended in May 2010. As expected during this period (actually extending up to fall 2010), the system underwent many changes both in terms of instrument (calibration, polarisation mode) and algorithms.
It was thus decided by the Quality Working Group to reprocess the 2010 data set with a constant and satisfactory calibration scheme and with the best available (last) version of the algorithms.
The operation started end of 2010 at the ESAC facilities for the level 1 providing the community with a consistent data set by mid January 2011. This data set has the state of the art level 1 processor (V3.46), though there are still some issues (land in sea contamination, poorly undestood Stokes 3 and 4 quantities, and several other problems of significant importance for salinity retrievals).
It was also decided to use a constant calibration scheme ensuring easy analysis but of course with the caveat that it is not as good as could be throughout the year.
Using this data set, CESBIO reprocessed level 2 soil moisture data on the CNES computers, producing the soil moisture product with the latest version of the level 2 algorithms (V4.00) and the reprocessed level 1.
It must be stated that the data set is still perfectible as some “current files” were not updated as would have been the case in the operational system (and in particular the RFI current, leading to a slow spin up during the first weeks of 2010 for instance).
Never the less, the quality working group gave the green light for the distribution of this CESBIO hand crafted product.
The L2 soil moisture team is eager to get your feed back on the product, either directly (yann.kerr@cesbio.cnes.fr, ali@array.ca) or through this BLOG.
For all issues related to data access, formats and read/write, processors, go directly to ESA’s HelpDesk.