Operational Ocean Colour

Chair (2002-2007):

Christopher Brown (NOAA, USA)

Co-Chairs (2007-2008):

Trevor Platt (BIO, Canada)
Nicolar Hoepffner (JRC, EU)

Established:

January 2002

Definition:

Providing useful data products and information derived from satellite ocean-colour sensors on a continued basis for its use in routine applications related to resources, environment and climate studies by local, state and federal governments, commercial entities, academic institutes, non-governmental agencies and public at large.

This group was established to examine various aspects of the operational use of ocean colour. The group was first chaired by Dr. Christopher Brown of NOAA, but he stepped down in 2007 due to work committments, and Drs. Platt and Hoepffner took over. The goal of the working group is to promote the use of near-real time ocean-colour products, to facilitate the exchange of ocean-colour applications, and to assist in the exchange of ideas and approaches among Agencies that currently possess, or will establish, an operational ocean-colour mission. The group will examine issues such as the problems associated with near-real time acquisition, processing, distribution and storage of ocean-colour data and products, the expansion of an operational ocean-colour user base and, inter-agency differences in ocean-colour products.

Part of the mandate of the group is to produce an IOCCG report entitled Why Ocean Colour. The report will include sections on “Uses of Satellite Ocean Colour” as well as “Elements of Operational Ocean Colour”.

Members:

• J. Acker NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA
• I. Asanuma Tokyo University, Japan
• S. Bernard CSIR-NRE, South Africa
• P. Bontempi NASA Headquarters, USA
• C. Brown NOAA, USA
• H. Dierssen University of Connecticut, USA
• S. Dutkiewicz MIT, USA
• R. Frouin Scripps, USA
• N. Hoepffner Joint Research Center, Ispra, Italy
• M.J. Lynch Curtin University of Technology, Australia
• S. Nayak INCOIS, India
• T. Platt Bedford Institute, Canada
• I. Robinson University of Southampton, UK
• C. Wilson NOAA / NMFS, USA