3 research outputs found

    Ten Years of Remote Sensing at Barcelona Expert Center

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    Special Issue of Remote Sensing: Ten Years of Remote Sensing at Barcelona Expert CenterThe Barcelona Expert Centre (BEC) (http://bec.icm.csic.es) is a joint initiative between the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). It was created in 2007 to provide support to the Spanish SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission activities. Nowadays, BEC activities cover a wide variety of topics: - Improvements on calibration, image reconstruction and stability of radiometric data. - Synergy of observations from different sensors and data sources. - Retrieval of geophysical variables: forward modeling and non-linear inversion. - Validation and quality control - Assimilation into atmospheric and ocean models. - Generation of added-value products at Levels 3 and 4. This Special Issue is mainly dedicated to publishing papers on new scientific results covering topics, such as: - Microwave radiometry, scatterometry, SAR, GNSS-R. - Sensor calibration. - Image reconstruction. - Ocean Remote Sensing: salinity, winds, sea ice, currents, temperature, etc. - Soil Moisture. - Retrieval algorithms.- SMOS Third Mission Reprocessing after 10 Years in Orbit https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12101645. - Deriving VTEC Maps from SMOS Radiometric Data https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12101604. - Real-time Reconstruction of Surface Velocities from Satellite Observations in the Alboran Sea https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12040724. - Assessment with Controlled In-Situ Data of the Dependence of L-Band Radiometry on Sea-Ice Thickness https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12040650. - Assessment of Multi-Scale SMOS and SMAP Soil Moisture Products across the Iberian Peninsula https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12030570. - Assimilation of Satellite Salinity for Modelling the Congo River Plume https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12010011. - Quantifying Tidal Fluctuations in Remote Sensing Infrared SST Observations https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11192313. - Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) Benefits for the Copernicus Level 4 Sea-Surface Salinity Processing Chain https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11151818. - In Situ and Satellite Sea Surface Salinity in the Algerian Basin Observed through ABACUS Glider Measurements and BEC SMOS Regional Products https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11111361. - A Synergetic Approach for the Space-Based Sea Surface Currents Retrieval in the Mediterranean Sea https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11111285. - Wide Field of View Microwave Interferometric Radiometer Imaging https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11060682. - Dominant Features of Global Surface Soil Moisture Variability Observed by the SMOS Satellite https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11010095. - Assessment of Root Zone Soil Moisture Estimations from SMAP, SMOS and MODIS Observations https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10070981. - Surface Temperature and Chlorophyll Concentration Coherence https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12071153Peer reviewe

    In Situ and Satellite Sea Surface Salinity in the Algerian Basin Observed through ABACUS Glider Measurements and BEC SMOS Regional Products

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    Special Issue Ten Years of Remote Sensing at Barcelona Expert Center.-- 26 pages, 16 figures, 2 tablesThe Algerian Basin is a key area for the general circulation in the western Mediterranean Sea. The basin has an intense inflow/outflow regime with complex circulation patterns, involving both fresh Atlantic water and more saline Mediterranean water. Several studies have demonstrated the advantages of the combined use of autonomous underwater vehicles, such as gliders, with remotely sensed products (e.g., altimetry, MUR SST) to observe meso- and submesoscale structures and their properties. An important contribution could come from a new generation of enhanced satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) products, e.g., those provided by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. In this paper, we assess the advantages of using Barcelona Expert Center (BEC) SMOS SSS products, obtained through a combination of debiased non-Bayesian retrieval, DINEOF (data interpolating empirical orthogonal functions) and multifractal fusion with high resolution sea surface temperature (OSTIA SST) maps. Such an aim was reached by comparing SMOS Level-3 (L3) and Level-4 (L4) SSS products with in situ high resolution glider measurements collected in the framework of the Algerian Basin Circulation Unmanned Survey (ABACUS) observational program conducted in the Algerian Basin during falls 2014–2016. Results show that different levels of confidence between in situ and satellite measurements can be achieved according to the spatial scales of variability. Although SMOS values slightly underestimate in situ observations (mean difference is −0.14 (−0.11)), with a standard deviation of 0.25 (0.26) for L3 (L4) products), at basin scale, the enhanced SMOS products well represent the salinity patterns described by the ABACUS dataThe ABACUS 1 missions (2014) were supported by the Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatories (JERICO) TransNational Access (TNA) third call (grant agreement no. 262584). The research leading to ABACUS 3 (2016) was supported by the European Union’s H2020 Framework Programme (h2020-INFRAIA-2014-2015) (JERICO-NEXT grant agreement no. 654410). The activities described in this paper were developed in the framework of the Italian Flagship Project RITMARE. This work was supported by the Spanish R+D plan under projects L-BAND (ESP2017-89463-C3-1-R) and PROMISES (ESP2015-67549-C3-2) and from European Space Agency by means of the contracts SMOS ESL L2OS, CCI+SSSPeer Reviewe

    In situ and satellite sea surface salinity in the Algerian basin observed through ABACUS glider measurements and BEC SMOS regional products

    No full text
    The Algerian Basin is a key area for the general circulation in the western Mediterranean Sea. The basin has an intense inflow/outflow regime with complex circulation patterns, involving both fresh Atlantic water and more saline Mediterranean water. Several studies have demonstrated the advantages of the combined use of autonomous underwater vehicles, such as gliders, with remotely sensed products (e.g., altimetry, MUR SST) to observe meso- and submesoscale structures and their properties. An important contribution could come from a new generation of enhanced satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) products, e.g., those provided by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. In this paper, we assess the advantages of using Barcelona Expert Center (BEC) SMOS SSS products, obtained through a combination of debiased non-Bayesian retrieval, DINEOF (data interpolating empirical orthogonal functions) and multifractal fusion with high resolution sea surface temperature (OSTIA SST) maps. Such an aim was reached by comparing SMOS Level-3 (L3) and Level-4 (L4) SSS products with in situ high resolution glider measurements collected in the framework of the Algerian Basin Circulation Unmanned Survey (ABACUS) observational program conducted in the Algerian Basin during falls 2014-2016. Results show that different levels of confidence between in situ and satellite measurements can be achieved according to the spatial scales of variability. Although SMOS values slightly underestimate in situ observations (mean difference is -0.14 (-0.11)), with a standard deviation of 0.25 (0.26) for L3 (L4) products), at basin scale, the enhanced SMOS products well represent the salinity patterns described by the ABACUS data
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