Dependence of brightness temperature sounded with spacecraft SMOS on the azimuth angle of sounding

The results of the analysis of angular dependence of soil brightness temperature obtained in the natural, model experiment, and with SMOS satellite, are presented. It is found that the value of surfaces brightness temperature with periodic profile considerably depends on the azimuth angle of sounding. Such surfaces under certain conditions can have a value of brightness temperature greater on the horizontal polarization than on the vertical polarization. Similar correlations are often observed in the SMOS data. It is shown that the features of the angular dependence of brightness temperature obtained by SMOS can be explained both by natural processes and hardware errors. The results can be used in the SMOS data processing.