From field experiments to salinity products: a tribute to the contributions of Jordi Font to the SMOS mission

• Published in: Scientia Marina
• Main Authors: Camps Carmona, Adriano José, Gabarró Prats, Carolina, Vall-Llossera Ferran, Mercedes Magdalena, Blanch Boris, Sebastián, Aguasca Solé, Alberto, Torres Torres, Francisco, Corbella Sanahuja, Ignasi, Duffo Ubeda, Núria, Turiel Martínez, Antonio, Portabella, Marcos, Ballabrera Poy, Joaquim, González Gambau, V., Martinez, Justino, Villarino Villarino, Ramón, Monerris Belda, Sandra, Bosch Lluís, Xavier, Sabia, Roberto, Talone, Marco, Piles Guillem, Maria, Pablos Hernández, Miriam, Valencia Domènech, Enric
• Other Authors: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament de Teoria del Senyal i Comunicacions, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. RSLAB - Grup de Recerca en Teledetecció, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. ANTENNALAB - Grup d'Antenes i Sistemes Radio, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. RF&MW - Grup de Recerca de sistemes, dispositius i materials de RF i microones, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. CTE-CRAE - Grup de Recerca en Ciències i Tecnologies de l'Espai
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica::Teledetecció; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida; Remote sensing; Soil moisture; SMOS; radiometry; interferometry; calibration; validation; salinity; sea ice; GNSS-R; Teledetecció; Sòls > Humitat; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2117/98458; https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.04285.04A

This article summarizes some of the activities in which Jordi Font, research professor and head of the Department of Physical and Technological Oceanography, Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC, Spanish National Research Council) in Barcelona, has been involved as co-Principal Investigator for Ocean Salinity of the European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer Mission from the perspective of the Remote Sensing Lab at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. We have probably left out some of his many contributions to salinity remote sensing, but we hope that this review will give an idea of the importance of his work. We focus on the following issues: 1) the new accurate measurements of the sea water dielectric constant, 2) the WISE and EuroSTARRS field experiments that helped to define the geophysical model function relating brightness temperature to sea state, 3) the FROG 2003 field experiment that helped to understand the emission of sea foam, 4) GNSS-R techniques for improving sea surface salinity retrieval, 5) instrument characterization campaigns, and 6) the operational implementation of the Processing Centre of Levels 3 and 4 at the SMOS Barcelona Expert Centre. Peer Reviewed Postprint (published version)