{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T16:08:34Z","timestamp":1772554114402,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]],"date-time":"2021-11-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1637020800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000844","name":"European Space Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["4000119132\/16\/I-SBo"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["4000119132\/16\/I-SBo"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000844","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Pilot-Mission Exploitation Platform (Pi-MEP) for salinity is an ESA initiative originally meant to support and widen the uptake of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission data over the ocean. Starting in 2017, the project aims at setting up a computational web-based platform focusing on satellite sea surface salinity data, supporting studies on enhanced validation and scientific process over the ocean. It has been designed in close collaboration with a dedicated science advisory group in order to achieve three main objectives: gathering all the data required to exploit satellite sea surface salinity data, systematically producing a wide range of metrics for comparing and monitoring sea surface salinity products\u2019 quality, and providing user-friendly tools to explore, visualize and exploit both the collected products and the results of the automated analyses. The Salinity Pi-MEP is becoming a reference hub for the validation of satellite sea surface salinity missions by providing valuable information on satellite products (SMOS, Aquarius, SMAP), an extensive in situ database (e.g., Argo, thermosalinographs, moorings, drifters) and additional thematic datasets (precipitation, evaporation, currents, sea level anomalies, sea surface temperature, etc.). Co-localized databases between satellite products and in situ datasets are systematically generated together with validation analysis reports for 30 predefined regions. The data and reports are made fully accessible through the web interface of the platform. The datasets, validation metrics and tools (automatic, user-driven) of the platform are described in detail in this paper. Several dedicated scienctific case studies involving satellite SSS data are also systematically monitored by the platform, including major river plumes, mesoscale signatures in boundary currents, high latitudes, semi-enclosed seas, and the high-precipitation region of the eastern tropical Pacific. Since 2019, a partnership in the Salinity Pi-MEP project has been agreed between ESA and NASA to enlarge focus to encompass the entire set of satellite salinity sensors. The two agencies are now working together to widen the platform features on several technical aspects, such as triple-collocation software implementation, additional match-up collocation criteria and sustained exploitation of data from the SPURS campaigns.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13224600","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,17]],"date-time":"2021-11-17T02:42:28Z","timestamp":1637116948000},"page":"4600","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["The Salinity Pilot-Mission Exploitation Platform (Pi-MEP): A Hub for Validation and Exploitation of Satellite Sea Surface Salinity Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5856-4381","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"S\u00e9bastien","family":"Guimbard","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"OceanScope, 38 Rue Jim Sevellec, 29200 Brest, France"}]},{"given":"Nicolas","family":"Reul","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire d\u2019Oc\u00e9anographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM Brest, University of Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, 29200 Brest, France"}]},{"given":"Roberto","family":"Sabia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Telespazio-UK for ESA, ESRIN, 00044 Frascati, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2322-9882","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sylvain","family":"Herl\u00e9dan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"OceanDataLab, 870 Route de Deolen, 29280 Locmaria Plouzan\u00e9, France"}]},{"given":"Ziad El","family":"Khoury Hanna","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"OceanDataLab, 870 Route de Deolen, 29280 Locmaria Plouzan\u00e9, France"}]},{"given":"Jean-Francois","family":"Pioll\u00e9","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire d\u2019Oc\u00e9anographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM Brest, University of Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, 29200 Brest, France"}]},{"given":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric","family":"Paul","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire d\u2019Oc\u00e9anographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM Brest, University of Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, 29200 Brest, France"}]},{"given":"Tong","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91001, USA"}]},{"given":"Julian J.","family":"Schanze","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Earth & Space Research (ESR), Seattle, WA 98101, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9848-7141","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Frederick M.","family":"Bingham","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Marine Science, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9335-0741","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David","family":"Le Vine","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20706, USA"}]},{"given":"Nadya","family":"Vinogradova-Shiffer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20001, USA"}]},{"given":"Susanne","family":"Mecklenburg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Space Agency, ECSAT, Harwell OX11, UK"}]},{"given":"Klaus","family":"Scipal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Space Agency, ESRIN, 00044 Frascati, Italy"}]},{"given":"Henri","family":"Laur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Space Agency, ESRIN, 00044 Frascati, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111769","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2020.111769","article-title":"Salinity estimates from Spaceborne L-band radiometers: An overview of the first decade of observation (2010\u20132019)","volume":"242","author":"Reul","year":"2020","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.3389\/fmars.2019.00243","article-title":"Satellite Salinity Observing System: Recent Discoveries and the Way Forward","volume":"6","author":"Vinogradova","year":"2019","journal-title":"Front. Mar. Sci."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7564","DOI":"10.1029\/2018JC014408","article-title":"Expected Performances of the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) for an All-Weather and High Spatial Resolution Estimation of Ocean and Sea Ice Parameters","volume":"123","author":"Kilic","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). Match-up Datasets. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/data\/mdb.html."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). Match-up Reports. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/reports\/mdb.html."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). In-Situ Reports. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/reports\/insitu.html."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1305","DOI":"10.1175\/JCLI-D-15-0028.1","article-title":"In Situ-Based Reanalysis of the Global Ocean Temperature and Salinity with ISAS: Variability of the Heat Content and Steric Height","volume":"29","author":"Gaillard","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Clim."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Argo (2021). Argo Float Data and Metadata from Global Data Assembly Centre (Argo GDAC). SEANOE."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.dsr.2015.08.005","article-title":"The French contribution to the voluntary observing ships network of sea surface salinity","volume":"105","author":"Alory","year":"2015","journal-title":"Deep-Sea Res. Pt. I"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Kolodziejczyk, N., Diverres, D., Jacquin, S., Gouriou, Y., Grelet, J., Le Menn, M., Tassel, J., Reverdin, G., Maes, C., and Gaillard, F. (2020). Sea Surface Salinity from French RESearcH Vessels: Delayed Mode Dataset, Annual Release. SEANOE."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Reynaud, T., Desprez De Gesincourt, F., Gaillard, F., Le Goff, H., and Reverdin, G. (2017). Sea Surface Salinity from Sailing Ships: Delayed Mode Dataset, Annual Release. SEANOE."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Smith, S.R., Rolph, J.J., Briggs, K., and Bourassa, M.A. (2009). Quality-Controlled Underway Oceanographic and Meteorological Data from the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Predictions Center (COAPS)\u2014Shipboard Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System (SAMOS). NOAA Natl. Cent. Environ. Inf. Dataset."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"472","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jmarsys.2013.09.011","article-title":"Nineteen-year changes in surface salinity in the Southern Ocean south of Australia","volume":"129","author":"Morrow","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Mar. Sys."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Aulicino, G., Cotroneo, Y., Ansorge, I., and Van Den Berg, M. (2018). Sea Surface Temperature and Salinity Collected Aboard the S.A. AGULHAS II and S.A. AGULHAS in the South Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean from 2010-12-08 to 2017-02-02 (NCEI Accession 0170743). NOAA Natl. Cent. Environ. Inf. Dataset."},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"33","article-title":"Surface salinity drifters for SMOS validation","volume":"45","author":"Morisset","year":"2012","journal-title":"Mercator Ocean\u2014CORIOLIS Q. Newsl."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"132","DOI":"10.5670\/oceanog.2017.234","article-title":"Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole: A Review of the MEOP Consortium","volume":"30","author":"Treasure","year":"2017","journal-title":"Oceanography"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Roquet, F., Guinet, C., Charrassin, J.B., Costa, D.P., Kovacs, K.M., Lydersen, C., Bornemann, H., Bester, M.N., Muelbert, M.C., and Hindell, M.A. (2018). MEOP-CTD In-Situ Data Collection: A Southern Ocean Marine-Mammals Calibrated Sea Water Temperatures and Salinities Observations. SEANOE."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pocean.2009.03.004","article-title":"The 2004\u20132008 mean and annual cycle of temperature, salinity, and steric height in the global ocean from the Argo Program","volume":"82","author":"Roemmich","year":"2009","journal-title":"Prog. Oceanogr."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1391","DOI":"10.1175\/BAMS-D-15-00032.1","article-title":"Satellite and In Situ Salinity: Understanding Near-Surface Stratification and Sub-footprint Variability","volume":"97","author":"Boutin","year":"2016","journal-title":"Bull. Am. Meterol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"487","DOI":"10.1175\/1525-7541(2004)005<0487:CAMTPG>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"CMORPH: A Method that Produces Global Precipitation Estimates from Passive Microwave and Infrared Data at High Spatial and Temporal Resolution","volume":"5","author":"Joyce","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Hydrometeorol."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bentamy, A., Grodsky, S.A., Carton, J.A., Croiz\u00e9-Fillon, D., and Chapron, B. (2012). Matching ASCAT and QuikSCAT winds. J. Geophys. Res., 117.","DOI":"10.1029\/2011JC007479"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"341","DOI":"10.1175\/JTECH-D-19-0177.1","article-title":"Improved Estimation of Proxy Sea Surface Temperature in the Arctic","volume":"37","author":"Banzon","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"392","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2015.12.052","article-title":"Multi-dimensional interpolation of SMOS sea surface salinity with surface temperature and in situ salinity data","volume":"180","author":"Nardelli","year":"2016","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3583","DOI":"10.1256\/qj.05.105","article-title":"Operational multivariate ocean data assimilation","volume":"131","author":"Cummings","year":"2005","journal-title":"Q. J. R. Meteor. Soc."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"303","article-title":"Variational Data Assimilation for the Global Ocean","volume":"Volume II","author":"Park","year":"2013","journal-title":"Data Assimilation for Atmospheric, Oceanic and Hydrologic Applications"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"240","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0426(2002)019<0240:TMODAS>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"The Modular Ocean Data Assimilation System (MODAS)","volume":"19","author":"Fox","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"88","DOI":"10.5670\/oceanog.2009.41","article-title":"The Global General Circulation of the Ocean Estimated by the ECCO-Consortium","volume":"22","author":"Wunsch","year":"2009","journal-title":"Oceanography"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wunsch, C., and Heimbach, P. (2013). Chapter 21\u2014Dynamically and Kinematically Consistent Global Ocean Circulation and Ice State Estimates. Ocean Circulation and Climate, Academic Press.","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-12-391851-2.00021-0"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5753","DOI":"10.1029\/96JC02775","article-title":"A finite-volume, incompressible Navier Stokes model for studies of the ocean on parallel computers","volume":"102","author":"Marshall","year":"1997","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Amante, C., and Eakins, B.W. (2009). ETOPO1 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis. NOAA Technical Memorandum NESDIS NGDC-24, National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"433","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0485(1998)028<0433:GVOTFB>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Geographical Variability of the First Baroclinic Rossby Radius of Deformation","volume":"28","author":"Chelton","year":"1998","journal-title":"J. Phys. Oceanogr."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"de Boyer Mont\u00e9gut, C., Madec, G., Fischer, A.S., Lazar, A., and Ludicone, D. (2004). Mixed layer depth over the global ocean: An examination of profile data and a profile-based climatology. J. Geophys. Res., 109.","DOI":"10.1029\/2004JC002378"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"de Boyer Mont\u00e9gut, C., Mignot, J., Lazar, A., and Cravatte, S. (2007). Control of salinity on the mixed layer depth in the world ocean: 1. General description. J. Geophys. Res., 112.","DOI":"10.1029\/2006JC003953"},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). Case Studies: Large River Plumes Monitoring. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/case-studies\/river-plumes\/."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). Case Studies: Mesoscale Signatures in Western Boundary Currents. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/case-studies\/gulf-stream\/."},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). Case Studies: High-Latitudes and Semi-Closed Seas. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/case-studies\/high-latitude-and-semi-closed-sea\/."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). Case Studies: Field Campaign. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/case-studies\/field-campaign\/."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.5670\/oceanog.2019.207","article-title":"SPURS-2: Salinity Processes in the Upper-Ocean Regional Study 2\u2014The Eastern Equatorial Pacific Experiment","volume":"32","author":"Lindstrom","year":"2019","journal-title":"Oceanography"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2016.02.053","article-title":"Interannual anomalies of SMOS sea surface salinity","volume":"180","author":"Boutin","year":"2016","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Pi-MEP (2021, September 15). Changelog. Available online: https:\/\/www.salinity-pimep.org\/changelog.html."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/13\/22\/4600\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T07:31:00Z","timestamp":1760167860000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/13\/22\/4600"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"22","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11]]}},"alternative-id":["rs13224600"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs13224600","relation":{"has-part":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5194\/os-20-1547-2024","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]]}}}