ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8451
Open Date: 27/10/2015
Closing Date: 08/12/2015

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 15.155.17
Prog. Ref.: EOEP-4 Sup.Scien.Ele
Budget Ref.: E/0094-E4 – EOEP-4 Sup.Scien.Ele
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+LU+CZ+RO+PL+CA
Proc. Prop: NO
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of EO Programmes
Department: Science, Appl & Future Technologies Dept
Division: Mission Science Division
Contract Officer: Wesolowski, Szymon
Last Update Date: 27/10/2015
Update Reason: Tender issue

ESA’s SMOS mission is part of ESA’s Living Planet Programme and carries the first-ever, polar-orbiting, space-borne, 2-D interferometric radiometer providing observations at 1.4 GHz. From the Level 1 brightness temperatures we derive the Level-2 data products, namely surface soil moisture and vegetation optical depth (VOD) (over land) and sea surface salinity (over oceans). SMOS not only contributes towards our understanding of the global water cycle, but also has the potential to improve our understanding of the global carbon cycle. The assimilation of SMOS soil moisture into a carbon assimilation scheme built around a terrestrial biosphere model was found to improve global CO2 flux estimates. Similarly, assimilating SMOS soil moisture and AMSR-E C-band VOD data into an evapotranspiration (ET) model was found to improve ET and root-zone soil moisture estimates over Australia. However, there is still a lack of in-depth understanding of the VOD product, and its potential to monitor vegetation properties and processes has not yet been satisfactorily explored. In this context, this activity aims to increase the scientific return of the SMOS VOD data product by preparing and promoting its use for vegetation applications in the fields of agriculture, drought monitoring and land surface modeling.

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