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Training Course on Primary
Production at Fiji Workshop
Postponed!
Indian Ocean GOOS
Conference
Operational Ocean-Colour Working Group The IOCCG Operational Ocean-Colour Working Group, chaired by Dr. Christopher Brown of NOAA, plans to hold an informal meeting from 2-5 pm on Sunday 17 November, 2002, prior to the Ocean Optics conference in Sante Fe (USA). The group was formed 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. Part of the mandate of the group is to produce an IOCCG report on applications of satellite ocean-colour. At the meeting, the group intends to formulate an action plan, and to prepare an outline for a report establishing guidelines for government agencies interested in processing, distributing and using ocean-colour data in an operational setting. If you would like more information about this working group, or if you are interested in attending the meeting, please email Christopher.W.Brown@noaa.gov. Ocean-Colour Algorithm Working
Group An international working group was recently established by the IOCCG to discuss the development, testing and validation of ocean-colour algorithms. The IOCCG has invited Dr ZhongPing Lee of the Naval Research Laboratory to chair the group. An informal kick-off meeting will be held from 7-10 pm on Sunday 17 November, 2002, prior to the Ocean Optics conference in Sante Fe (USA). Interested people are welcome to attend. For more information about this working group please contact Dr. ZhongPing Lee.
The partnership of the NASA SeaWiFS Project and Orbimage Inc. received the William T. Pecora Award during ceremonies on October 3, 2002. The award recognizes the SeaWiFS Team for outstanding contributions towards understanding the Earth's biology. SeaWiFS has been providing global views of oceanic biological activity with no interruption in service since data reception began on September 18, 1997! What an amazing feat! For the full text of the press release, see the NASA News website.
"Attribute" search engine for SeaWiFS HRPT station data. |
Calibration Review
MODIS-AQUA Data Release
Provisional MODIS/Aqua Radiometric and Geolocation products, two 5-km subsample products, and Cloud Mask product were released on 26 September, 2002. Ocean colour products can't be far behind! For detailed information on this data release see: http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/MODIS/news/index.shtml#Aqua
ECS Data Pool FTP
Data Pool uses a large disk cache to hold EOS data, after initial insertion into the EOS Data and Information System Core System (ECS),
for an extended period of time (e.g., a month or more). The goal for Data Pool is to increase the
distribution capacity of the ECS by significantly reducing the need to access a tape archive.
In addition, user access to this data is made faster and easier. For now,
access is only by anonymous ftp but enhanced, user-friendly WWW access to the Data Pool will be
available shortly. For more information on the Data Pool, please read the
Data Pool Readme
file
MODIS Terra Processing Status
Collection 4 reprocessing of MODIS Terra ocean data
products is nearing completion (see the Processing
Status page). Collection 4 represents a dramatic improvement
in quality and consistency over previous data versions. The entire MODIS
mission ocean data set starting from February 24, 2000 will be reprocessed.
The reprocessing, which began on June 15, 2002, should be completed this
month. Comparison of Collection 4 MODIS data to in-situ
measurements at the MOBY buoy site show excellent agreement.
Several new references have been added to the IOCCG Recent Publications page. If you have any new publications dealing with ocean colour that you would like to see on this page, please send them to the webmaster.
Two new employment opportunities for a Scientific Programmer/Analyst are available at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, USA. See our employment page for details.
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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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Final preparations are now underway for the
training course on 'Primary production: Theory, modelling and estimation by
remote sensing' to be held at the University of Concepción, Chile, from
October 21 to November 1, 2002. Some 27 students have been selected to
attend this graduate course: 14 from Chile and 13 from other Latin American
countries. The IOCCG will be sponsoring eight of the foreign students, as
well as three of the lecturers. Students will be taught the theoretical
basis for calculating primary production in aquatic systems, starting with
production at discrete depths using non-spectral models, through
vertically-uniform, integrated models to vertically-inhomogeneous,
non-spectral models. A major goal of the course is to emphasise how in
situ observations and remotely-sensed data on ocean colour can be used
as complementary tools to obtain large-scale estimates of primary
production. Lecturers will include Dr. Trevor Platt, Dr. Shubha
Sathyendranath, Dr. Vivian Lutz, Dr. Osvaldo Ulloa, Dr. Mark Dowell and
Dr. Cesar Fuentes-Yaco. A report on the training course will be presented
in the next issue of the "IOCCG News".
The
2nd Remote Sensing Applications Workshop, which was to be held in Nadi,
Fiji from 8-10 October, 2002 has now been rescheduled for the first quarter
of 2003. Logistical issues have necessitated the postponement of the
course, which was to be hosted by SOPAC (South Pacific Applied Geoscience
Commission) with additional sponsorship provided by the Perth Regional
Office of the IOC (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission) and the
IOCCG. Fourteen delegates/trainees from various Pacific Island nations
were listed to attend the workshop. Further details will be available in
the near future.
The first Indian Ocean GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System)
Conference will take place in Grand Bay, Mauritius from 4 - 9 November,
2002. The conference is an opportunity for Indian Ocean-rim countries,
plus various international programmes with an interest in the Indian Ocean,
to build bridges between various projects and programmes including climate,
coastal, ecosystem and capacity building. The IOCCG will be sponsoring two
delegates (Dr. Shailesh Nayak and Dr. Frank Shillington) to make
presentations at the "Satellite Applications/Users Seminar" to help develop
plans for regional capacity building, with the aim of expanding the use of
satellite applications in the area. This session will be chaired by Prof.
Mervyn Lynch of the IOCCG. Further information on the conference can be
found on on the homepage of the 
SeaWiFS Team Wins Pecora Award 
The SeaWiFS WWW data ordering system at the
GES DAAC now includes two "attributes" that can be searched for:
the area of ocean in an HRPT station data file, and the percentage
of the ocean area that is covered by clouds in the file. These search
engines can be found on the SeaWiFS Level 1A LAC HRPT 
The European Space Agency (ESA) held a
meeting at ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands (9-13 September, 2002) to review
the calibration results of all instruments on board its environmental
satellite ENVISAT. Presentations included a review of the spectral,
radiometric and vicarious calibration of MERIS and the status of MERIS
validation activities. All presentations are available on the 
Eastern region of South Africa captured by
ESA's MERIS ocean colour sensor on board ENVISAT on 6 July, 2002.
View of
Mississippi River from Aqua satellite.