Overview on calibration and validation activities for ESA's soil moisture and ocean salinity mission

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is the European Space Agency's (ESA) second Earth Explorer Opportunity mission. The scientific objectives of the SMOS mission directly respond to the current lack of global observations of soil moisture and ocean salinity, two key variables used in predictive hydrological, oceanographic and atmospheric models. The paper will give an overview on the scientific objectives and the (access to the) available data products.