SMOS validation and the COSMOS campaigns

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is a joint ESA-CNES (F)-CDTI (E) mission within the ESA Living Planet Program, and it was the second ESA Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission to be selected. The mission objectives of SMOS are to provide soil moisture and ocean salinity observations for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and the global freshwater cycle. This paper will describe the scientific campaigns performed to date, as well as the plans for the on-orbit calibration and validation activities.