Large scale variability of SMOS sea surface salinity in 2010 and 2011: Ocean variability and other effects

The variability observed on SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) SSS (sea surface salinity) recorded in 2010 and 2011 is partly attributable to geophysical variations but also to imperfections in various corrections (e.g. sun aliases, sea surface scattering of the galactic signal). We perform a retrieval of bistatic coefficients from SMOS Tbs, suggesting more peaked coefficients than the ones currently used for simulating the galactic contribution.