IOCCG news bulletins include items of interest from the IOCCG, its sponsoring agencies, and the broader ocean colour community. Please let us know if there are any other items of interest you would like to see included in the next IOCCG news bulletin by contacting Raisha Lovindeer (raisha@ioccg.org).
News from IOCCG
IOCS-2025 Call for Breakout Workshop Chairs & Associated Training Sessions
The 6th International Ocean Colour Science (IOCS-2025) meeting is scheduled to take place at Darmstadtium in Darmstadt, Germany on 1 – 4 December 2025 under the theme Ocean Colour: serving Earth system science & our society.
The IOCS-2025 Scientific Planning Committee opened the call breakout workshops with a deadline of 1 March 2025. The Committee also welcomes applications for associated training events that will be held on 5 December 2025. The deadline for training sessions is 1 April 2025.
See the IOCS website for details and to submit your proposals.
SLS-2024 lecture material now available
Participants of the 2024 Summer Lecture Series, Hyderabad, India
The 6th IOCCG Summer Lecture Series (SLS) was held from 4-15 November 2024 at the International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOOcean) at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).
A total of 28 students and 12 lecturers from 20 countries participated. Lecture material from the course, including recordings of the lectures, are now publicly available on the SLS-2024 webpage on the IOCCG website: https://ioccg.org/what-we-do/training-and-education/ioccg-sls-2024/
New Discussions feature for published for IOCCG Protocols Series
Responding to requests and community feedback, the IOCCG now facilitates open and public community discussion on published protocols from the IOCCG Protocol Series. These discussions are to help community members better implement the published protocols, get questions answers, and get assistance from peers.
News from the Agencies
EUMETSAT Copernicus opportunity: Short-term (free) rental of a TriOS fully calibrated and characterised Ocean Colour radiometric system. Free calibrations of your own field radiometers – SECOND CALL
Application deadline: 20 February 2025
There are two opportunities provided to the Ocean Colour (OC) community by the European Commission Copernicus Programme in the framework of EUMETSAT’s FRM4SOC-2 project.
- Short-term (free) rental of a calibrated and fully (FRM) characterised in situ above-water radiometric OC measurement system, and
- Free calibration of your own OC radiometer set.
Recap: EUMETSAT-CONAE Training on HyperCP and ThoMaS
Participants of the EUMETSAT-CONAE training in Córdoba, Argentina
A 2-day training on the above-water radiometry community processor HyperCP, and the match-up toolkit ThoMaS, was given by EUMETSAT on 16-17 December 2024 at CONAE’s Centro Espacial Teófilo Tabanera in Córdoba, Argentina. The training was within the frame of a EUMETSAT-CONAE collaboration resulting from the 28th IOCCG Committee Meeting held in Córdoba earlier in 2024. The training provided the foundational concepts behind above-water field radiometry and in situ versus satellite match-ups, and included practical sessions on the scope and usage of the toolkits. The training was conducted in Spanish.
News from the Ocean Colour Community
ACOLITE includes a new processor to account for adjacency
The new version of ACOLITE (20250114.0) released in mid January 2025, made the RAdCor processor publicly available. RAdCor corrects for the effects of the atmosphere in optical imagery, including the atmospheric blurring also known as adjacency effect. RAdCor by default uses TOA-surface Dark Spectrum Fitting (TSDSF), a generalization of Dark Spectrum Fitting (DSF) that can estimate aerosol properties even in the presence of atmospheric blurring. The tool is modular, provides several optional outputs, and is computationally efficient as it requires no image iteration. The method is described in this upcoming paper, and more information and examples are available on the RAdCor website.
Events and Training
Check for upcoming workshops, conferences, and training events on the IOCCG website: https://ioccg.org/what-we-do/training-and-education/
EUMETSAT-NASA Copernicus FRM4SOC-2025 Training In Above-Water Radiometry
Applications are now OPEN for the Second Edition of the Copernicus FRM4SOC Training for in situ Ocean Colour Above-Water Radiometry towards Satellite Validation. The training will be held on 6 – 20 July 2025 on the enchanting island of San Servolo in the Venetian Lagoon in Italy, and at the nearby Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower. PhD students, postdocs, early career researchers, and experts of the Ocean Colour Community will gather for the second time in the frame of the EUMETSAT FRM4SOC-2 project for a comprehensive training event on Ocean Colour In situ Above-Water Radiometric Measurements supported by the European Commission Copernicus Programme and NASA.
See the link to read more about the training, and to apply before 10 February 2025.
EUMETSAT Copernicus opportunity: Second FRM4SOC Workshop on Calibration and Characterisation of Ocean Colour Field Radiometers
Registration is now open for the Second FRM4SOC Workshop on Calibration and Characterisation of Ocean Colour Field Radiometers, which will take place on 20 – 22 May 2025 in Tartu, Estonia. The main objective of the workshop is to connect with all interested parties working on the calibration and characterisation of field radiometers (manufacturers, metrology institutes, calibration laboratories, FRM4SOC development teams) and discuss the following topics:
- Present and future challenges in calibration and characterisation of Ocean Colour Radiometers.
- Requirements to achieve Fiducial Reference Measurement quality in situ measurements for satellite data validation.
- Existing guidelines for field radiometer calibration and characterisation.
- Knowledge exchange on the laboratory methods, procedures, and facilities.
- Organisation of future laboratory comparison measurements.
- Improvement and harmonisation of the developed guidelines, procedures and tools for calibration laboratories.
A visit to the calibration and characterisation laboratories at Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu is also planned. This event is supported by the European Commission Copernicus Programme in the frame of EUMETSAT’s FRM4SOC-2 Project. Read more and register here
6th Symposium of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR): Space Exploration 2025: A Symposium on Humanity’s Challenges and Celestial Solutions (COSPAR 2025)
Abstract submission is now open for the 6th Symposium of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR 2025), which will be held on 3 – 7 November 2025 in Nicosia, Cyprus. Sessions will be organized under various themes, including:
- Space Tech for Earth and Beyond: Innovation, AI, and Sustainable Solutions
- Capacity Building, CubeSats and Outreach Event
The deadline for abstracts is 4 April 2025. Selected papers from the event will be published in Advances in Space Research and Life Sciences in Space Research. Check the COSPAR website for details at https://www.cospar-assembly.org/symposia, or contact the COSPAR Secretariat (cospar@cosparhq.cnes.fr).
Register your interest: Global Ocean Biogeochemistry (GO-BGC) Float Data Workshop
The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC) program will be hosting a Float Data workshop on 11-15 August 2025 at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
The workshop will be a Hack-a-thon type workshop, where small groups will pursue a scientific question/objective using BGC-Argo data. This workshop will include a combination of an overview of BGC-Argo and the GO-BGC program, lectures, working (coding) with float data with your group, and a tour of the float lab at UW. Participants are expected to be familiar with how to access and utilize BGC-Argo data prior to the workshop, and to have programming experience.
Please RSVP for this workshop here. Note, this is not a registration, but a form to gauge interest from the community. A registration form will be sent out in the next few months.
Employment Opportunities
Check for new research and employment opportunities on the IOCCG website: https://ioccg.org/resources/employment-opportunities/.
Open positions include:
- Climate Ecosystem and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI) Analyst, IBSS, Remote, USA
- Climate Vulnerability Analyst, IBSS, Remote, USA
- 2 Satellite Data Analysts/Scientists, RBINS, Belgium
- Ocean Colour Remote Sensing Specialist, IBSS, Remote, USA
- Researcher in Marine Science, Shom, France
- Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, SSIA/NASA, Maryland, USA
If you would like to include a position on this page, please contact Raisha Lovindeer.
The sixth International Ocean Colour Science (IOCS) meeting will take place in Darmstadt, Germany from 1 – 4 December 2025, hosted by EUMETSAT and ESA with support from other agencies.