Since the saltiness of ocean surface waters is a key variable in the climate system, understanding how this changes is important to understanding climate change. 

Due to a software maintenance on Wednesday 30 October, the following downtimes are scheduled:

• ERS and Envisat dissemination service: from 09:00 to 11:00 CET
• SMOS data dissemination service: from 11:00 to 13:00 CET.

Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the SMOS mission, which was launched on 2 November 2009. To celebrate the occasion, ESA is organising a symposium "Earth Explorers for Climate - The contribution from SMOS" which will take place at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, from 18 to 20 March 2020.

Since the saltiness of ocean surface waters is a key variable in the climate system, understanding how this changes is important to understanding climate change. 

This week, the UN World Meteorological Organization announced that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached yet another high. This ongoing trend is not only heating up the planet, but also affecting the chemical composition of our oceans. Until recently, it has been difficult to monitor 'ocean acidification', but scientists are exploring new ways to combine information from different sources, including from ESA's SMOS mission, to shed new light on this major environmental concern.

As ESA's SMOS satellite celebrates 10 years in orbit, yet another result has been added to its list of successes. This remarkable satellite mission has shown that it can be used to measure how the temperature of the Antarctic ice sheet changes with depth – and it's much warmer deep down.

SMOS has been in orbit for a decade. This remarkable satellite has not only exceeded its planned life in orbit, but also surpassed its original scientific goals.