ROSACE: A Proposed European Design for the Copernicus Ocean Colour System Vicarious Calibration Infrastructure

Abstract

The European Copernicus programme ensures long-term delivery of high-quality, global satellite ocean colour radiometry (OCR) observations from its Sentinel-3 (S3) satellite series carrying the ocean and land colour instrument (OLCI). In particular, the S3/OLCI provides marine water leaving reflectance and derived products to the Copernicus marine environment monitoring service, CMEMS, for which data quality is of paramount importance. This is why OCR system vicarious calibration (OC-SVC), which allows uncertainties of these products to stay within required specifications, is crucial. The European organisation for the exploitation of meteorological satellites (EUMETSAT) operates the S3/OLCI marine ground segment, and envisions having an SVC infrastructure deployed and operated for the long-term. This paper describes a design for such an SVC infrastructure, named radiometry for ocean colour satellites calibration and community engagement (ROSACE), which has been submitted to Copernicus by a consortium made of three European research institutions, a National Metrology Institute, and two small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). ROSACE proposes a 2-site infrastructure deployed in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean Seas, capable of delivering up to about 80 high quality matchups per year for OC-SVC of the S3/OLCI missions.

Synergies Between NASA's Hyperspectral Aquatic Missions PACE, GLIMR, and SBG: Opportunities for New Science and Applications

“…Of note, MOBY (https://mlml.sjsu.edu/moby/) moored off the island of Lanai, HI, USA, is a radiometry resource used for SVC of ocean color sensors since the launch of NASA's SeaWiFS that has been in continuous operation since 1997 (Voss et al., 2017). For the suite of new hyperspectral satellites, similar moored platforms in historic and new locations and different platforms like profiling systems are being considered, all equipped with high‐quality hyperspectral radiometric instruments (Antoine et al., 2020; Barnard et al., 2022; Liberti et al., 2020). All SVC data sources are expected to be made available to PACE, GLIMR, and SBG, as well as the international community at‐large.…”

Quantifying the Variability of Phytoplankton Blooms in the NW Mediterranean Sea with the Robust Satellite Techniques (RST)

“…The BOUSSOLE site (43.37 • N, 7.9 • E) is located in the Ligurian Sea, in one of the NWM sub-basins, at about 32 nautical miles from the French coast (water depth is 2440 m) [41]. In particular, BOUSSOLE is in the central area of the cyclonic circulation characterizing the Ligurian Sea where the prevailing ocean currents were usually weak (<20 cm/s) within most of the deployment years (18 years) [34]. The low-current pattern of the site together with the distance from shore are crucial characteristics making the site a satisfactory location to calibrate and validate OCR observations [41].…”

“…This paper aims at testing the RST approach on a new study area (i.e., NWM) by multi-sensor merged data, thus requiring a preliminary assessment through sea-truth data. The in situ measurements acquired by a permanent optical mooring, namely Bouée pour l'acquisitiond'unesérieoptique à long terme (BOUSSOLE), located in the Ligurian Sea, can be profitably exploited for this purpose as it provides collections of quasi-continuous data since 2003 [34].…”