The SMOS L1 Processors, and all associated contracts, have been maintained by DEIMOS Engenharia S.A., with José Barbosa as Project Engineer between 2004 and 2006 and, since 2006, as Project Manager. The consortium includes Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain), the Centre d’Etudes Spaciales de la Biosphere (France) and HARP Technologies (Finland).

The SMOS L1 Processor Prototype (L1PP) Project was initiated in 2003, during the end of SMOS Phase B, with the aim to perform several trade-off analyses on Image Reconstruction algorithms, HW&SW performances and even Discrete Global Grids effectiveness. 

The first version of L1PP was available by mid 2005, with only a limited capability of calibration processing and image reconstruction. Since then, more than 15 different SW releases have been performed, including several calibration baseline changes, specific algorithms to process the ground Image Validation Test campaign data and, finally, the Processing Launch Baseline version by the end of 2009. 

During this time, the role of the development team was very pro-active, not only implementing the algorithms recommended, but also trouble-shooting and investigating algorithm short-comings and unexpected deviations from the baseline due to the real instrument behaviour, demonstrating an excellent knowledge of the MIRAS L1 processing needs.

DEIMOS was responsible for the L1PP development and maintenance up to the end of commissioning, including the developmtnt of an API containing the streamlined L1 algorithm baseline, and which is used by the DPGS L1OP and NRTP Processors as Core algorithm SW. Deimos is also responsible for the maintenance of the SMOS Data Viewer (SDV), after inheriting this project from VEGA.

Between 2012 and 2018 Deimos was the sole responsible for all the Operational L1 Ground Segment Software, including the L1 Operational Processor, Near-Real Time Processor and all associated Pre and Post Processors. Since 2019 the L1 Operational Processor is maintained by Deimos and RDA in partnership, with the support of all L1 Expert Support Laboratories. L1OP v760 was delivered in April 2021 while L1OP v724, after extensive testing, is approved to be deployed operationally in late 2021.  

Both the Mission and all associated contracts were very recently extended up to 2024, with provisions for further extensions while the mission is flying.