The Fiducial Reference Measurement for Satellite Ocean Colour (FRM4SOC) project held an international workshop in February this year to evaluate the options for future European Ocean Colour Radiometry Vicarious Calibration (OCR-VC) infrastructure. The main objective of the workshop was to bring together world experts in optical radiometry to discuss future development of System Vicarious Calibration (SVC) infrastructure in Europe to ensure the highest possible data quality from the Copernicus Sentinel missions. Specialists from many institutions around the world including Germany, Italy, Canada, South Korea, France, USA, UK and Ireland attended the workshop.
Ocean colour remote sensing relies on highly precise and accurate in situ measurements of the optical properties of the oceans, the so-called Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM), to optimize reliability of the satellite data, through indirect calibration, i.e., vicarious calibration.  At the workshop, special attention was paid to existing reference sites for SVC including MOBy (the Marine Optical Buoy) deployed off the Hawaiian coast since 1996, and BOUSSOLE (Buoy for the acquisition of long-term optical times series) deployed in the Ligurian Sea since 2004, to review the systems and learn from their experiences.  The two buoys are currently being refreshed to better respond to the new challenges of operational ocean colour remote sensing. In addition, new emerging techniques based on autonomous profiling floats were also reviewed as they offer a great potential for both vicarious calibration and data validation. The conclusions and report from the workshop will be released soon – presentations from the workshop are already available on the FRM4SOC website.
Source: IOCCG News