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Primary
Production Training Course
In the practical sessions, the students learned to use the software MATLAB, and to acquire and process ocean-colour data for regions of their interest. They also learned to apply MATLAB to the calculation of the submarine light field and of primary production. Lectures covered a wide range of material including spectral and non-spectral models of photosynthesis and ocean-colour algorithms for Case-1 and Case-2 waters. For a full report on the training course please see: http://www.ioccg.org/training/chile02.html
Symposium on Resource and Environmental Monitoring
Operational Ocean-Colour Working Group At the recent meeting of the IOCCG Operational Ocean-Colour Working Group (17 November, 2002, Sante Fe), led by Dr. Christopher Brown of NOAA, the group agreed that their primary objective was the writing and publication of 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". For further information on this meeting, please see the meeting summary.
Ocean-Colour Algorithm Working
Group The IOCCG ocean-colour algorithm working group also held their first meeting on 17 November, 2002, in Sante Fe. The meeting was chaired by Dr. ZhongPing Lee (Naval Research Laboratory), with some 40 people attending. There were two major outcomes of the meeting:
Envisat Validation Workshop The European Space Agency (ESA) is organising a workshop in Frascati, Italy from 9-13 December 2002 to review the first results of the validation of the geophysical data products from its environmental satellite Envisat. The objectives of the Envisat Validation Workshop are:
 development,
will not cease after the workshop but will continue throughout the entire
mission lifetime. The workshop will start with a plenary introductory
session, followed by parallel sessions. At the end conclusions and
recommendations will be formulated in a plenary session. A preliminary
agenda and workshop registration information is now available on-line.Coccolithophore bloom off eastern Canada captured by MERIS, 10 August, 2002
Several new conferences have been added to the IOCCG Workshops & Conferences page, including the HABWATCH "Workshop on real-time coastal observing systems for ecosystem dynamics and harmful algal blooms", 11-21 June 2003, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France. The deadline for applications and abstract submissions is 31 December 2002. The objectives for the workshop are to review real-time and near real-time sensing systems applicable for observation, modelling and prediction of plankton dynamics in coastal waters, including HABs. Present the underlying theory and review the possibilities together with the current issues and limitations. See http://www.habwatch.org/ for further details.
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To date, China has a total of
three ocean-colour instruments in orbit. The Shen Zhou-3 (SZ-3) spaceship
carrying CMODIS (Chinese Moderate Imaging Spectra Radiometer)
was launched in March of this year, and the HY-1 satellite
carrying the Chinese Ocean Colour and Temperature Scanner (COCTS) and the
Coastal Zone Imager (CZI) was launched in May, 2002. Dr. Pan Delu
presented some spectacular new images from CMODIS at the recent conference
on "Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, Ocean, Environment and Space (23-27
October, 2002, Hangzhou, China). CMODIS is a sophisticated instrument with
a total of 34 channels (30 channels of 20 nm bandwidth in the visible, and
four infrared channels).
Science Focus! The latest Science Focus! article entitled "The Papagayo Wind" examines how the gale-force winds that blow from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea and funnel through the narrow breaks in the Central American Cordillera can propagate localised algal blooms. For the full story see http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/OCDST/papagayo.html
SeaWiFS PAR Data Available The GES DAAC has received and archived SeaWiFS Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) products, and made them both available online
MODIS Terra/Aqua Image
The IOCCG page for recent references (2001-2002) dealing with satellite ocean-colour studies has been updated.
Role of phytoplankton in the
Earth's climate system
If you would like to see your recent references added to the IOCCG bibliography, please submit them to the webmaster.
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Material for possible inclusion in the IOCCG Newsletter should be submitted to the Project Scientist. If you would like to be placed on the IOCCG News mailing list, and receive a brief summary of the latest news by e-mail (approximately once every 2 months), please send an e-mail with 'subscribe' in the subject line to subscribe@ioccg.org.To unsubscribe from the IOCCG News mailing list please send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line to unsubscribe@ioccg.org.
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The recent IOCCG co-sponsored training course on 'Primary
production: Theory, modelling and estimation by remote sensing', was a
resounding success. The course took place at the University of Concepción,
Chile from October 21 to November 1, 2002. Some 26 students from 8 different
countries attended the course, many of whom took the course for credit (see
The ISPRS Technical Commission VII and the Indian
Society of Remote Sensing have organized the "International Symposium on
Resource and Environmental Monitoring" (Hyderabad, India, 3-6 December,
2002). On behalf of the IOCCG, Dr. Trevor Platt
prepared a special presentation for the inaugural session entitled
"Ecosystem response to physical forcing of the ocean: a baseline to discuss
the potential effect of climate change". The role of hurricanes in
increasing localised ocean productivity (using SST and satellite
ocean-colour data) will be discussed as well as the importance of long-term
ocean-colour data-sets for understanding the relationship between primary
production and recruitment of the haddock fishery. A Special Session on
Ocean Colour will also be held on 4 December, 2002.
To commemorate
the diamond jubilee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) in India, the Indian Journal of Marine Sciences will
publish a thematic special issue entitled "Trends in Ocean Colour".
Authors are invited to submit original research articles or review articles
on any aspect of the thematic topic. Please notify one of the guest
editors (
The orbit of SZ-3 is non-sun-synchronous
and the coverage of CMODIS over China is shown in the image on the left.
Preliminary analysis of prototype data from CMODIS indicates that the data
is of high quality and can be used in inverse modelling to extract the
concentrations of chlorophyll and suspended material, such as shown in the
images below. CMODIS thus has great potential to monitor the coastal waters
of China, which are dominated by Case 2 type waters. 
(a) Chlorophyll and (b) suspended material mapped by
CMODIS 
This image of Southern Africa
is actually a composite image acquired by both
the MODIS Terra and MODIS Aqua instruments on November 7, 2002. There is a
difference of four hours and fifteen minutes between one side of
southern Africa and the other in this true-color image; the Aqua instrument
provided the left half of the image, while the Terra instrument provided
the right half. The calibration of the two MODIS instruments is so accurate
that it is possible to stitch together separate passes from each instrument
into a virtually seamless image. For the full story see 
Among the new references
added is an article by Robert Frouin and Sam Iacobellis which appeared in a
recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research (Vol. 107,
2002). The article entitled "Influence of phytoplankton on the global
radiation budget" discusses how phytoplankton can exert a significant and
previously uncalculated influence on Earth's climate. The authors used
CZCS-pigment imagery and radiation-transfer models to compute how much of
the sun's radiation is absorbed by phytoplankton. They show that oceanic
phytoplankton can exert a warming influence on the planet, decreasing the
outgoing radiative flux on a global scale by around 0.25 W m-2, which could
result in a global warming of the planet by 0.1 to 0.35oC
(compared with an open seawater scenario without phytoplankton). This
should be taken into account in future numerical models of climate change.
The full story can be found 
The UN-Affiliated Regional Centres for
Space Science and Technology Education, which were endorsed by the UN
General Assembly in 1995, are responsible for providing post-graduate level
training in 4 areas: Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System,
Satellite Communications, Satellite Meteorology and Global Climate and
Space and Atmospheric Sciences. The Regional Centre for the Latin America
and the Caribbean Region will hold its first long-term training course at
the post-graduate level by offering an 'International Course on Remote
Sensing and Geographic Information System'. The course is intended for
students from Latin America and the Carribean Region and will be held at
the Brazilian Campus. The duration of the course is from March - December
2003. Deadline for applications is 15 December 2002, and the intake of
students will be limited to 15. Funding support is available to successful
applicants. Further information can be provided by: