The use of dual polarization in mobile satellite systems is very promising as a means for increasing the transmission capacity. In this paper we study a system which uses simultaneously two orthogonal polarizations in order to communicate with the users. The application of MIMO signal processing techniques along with Adaptive Coding and Modulation in the forward link can provide remarkable throughput gains up to 100 % when compared with the single polarization system. The gateway is allowed to vary the MIMO and Modulation and Coding Schemes for each frame. The selection is done by means of a link adaptation algorithm which uses a tunable margin to achieve a predefined target Frame Error Rate Key words: link adaptation, Adaptive Coding and Modulation, MIMO, Dual-polarization, Satellite communications, Mobile Satellite Systems