[29-Aug-2018] Sabia, R., Reul, N., Guimbard, S., Mecklenburg, S., and Laur, H.
Presented at the 2018 Ocean Salinity Science Team and Salinity Continuity Processing MeetingThe SMOS Pilot Mission Exploitation Platform (Pi-MEP) for Salinity is an ESA initiative to support and widen the uptake of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission data over ocean. The Pi-MEP for Salinity motivation is twofold: i) to serve as an enhanced validation platform, complementing and expanding the efforts of the SMOS Expert Support Laboratories (ESLs); ii) to offer a testbed to enable oceanographic process studies in different domains, capitalizing on SMOS salinity data in synergy with additional satellite estimates (e.g., SST, WS, currents, rain estimates). The Pi-MEP is becoming a reference hub for the SMOS SSS mission providing access altogether to other satellite (Aquarius, SMAP) and additional thematic datasets (precipitation, evaporation, currents, sea level anomalies, SST). Match-up databases of SMOS/in situ (ARGO, TSG, moorings, drifters) data and inter-comparison reports at different spatiotemporal scales are systematically generated, and dedicated tools will allow data visualization, metrics computation and user-driven features extractions. The Platform is also meant to monitor SSS in selected oceanographic "case studies", ranging from tropical river plumes monitoring to SSS characterization at high latitudes or in semi-enclosed basins. Instrumental to the activities of the SMOS Pi-MEP Salinity is a dedicated Scientific Advisory Group (SAG), which has provided valuable inputs to set up the Platform by defining user requirements and by providing scientific advice. SAG members are currently serving as super-users and early adopters of the Platform functionalities in its current test phase. The feedback gathered in two dedicated SAG workshops will be summarized. Overall, the Pi-MEP consortium is finalizing the Platform implementation towards the upcoming opening of a pre-operational phase. Once fully consolidated, in the beginning of 2019 the Platform will be released and fully accessible to the wider oceanographic community. Concomitant efforts in a potential partnership with NASA in this context and a tandem effort regarding a Soil Moisture Platform will be described.