Lessons learnt from SMOS after 7 years in orbit

ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission has been in orbit for over 7 years, with its Microwave Imaging Radiometerwith Aperture Synthesis(MIRAS) functioning well. This 7 year period has provided a wealth of information which has enabled us to understand and consolidate the performance of the payload in great detail. More importantly, we know now the things that work well, those that need improvement, and how the instrument could be enhanced if we were to build it again. This paper presents the lessons learnt from SMOS after 7 years in orbit.