Ocean Colour from a Geostationary Orbit

Chairman:

Dr. David Antoine
Laboratoire d’ Oceanographie de Villefranche
Quai de La Darse, BP 8
06238 Villefranche sur Mer Cedex, France
Tel: 33-(0)4-93-76-37-23
Fax: 33-(0)4-93-76-37-39
Email: antoine@obs-vlfr.fr

Established:

February 2008

At the 13^th annual IOCCG Committee meeting in Paris (12-14 February 2008), many of the space agencies displayed a high level of interest in ocean-colour observations from a geostationary platform. CNES is currently performing R&D activities for a GEOCO mission (GEO Satellite for Ocean Colour), ISRO has plans for a High Resolution GEO Imager (HR-GEO), and KARI plans to launch their Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) aboard the COMS-1 satellite in 2009. For this reason the IOCCG Committee unanimously accepted a proposal by David Antoine to form a new IOCCG working group to address requirements, advocate for coordination, and foster collaboration.

The advantages of a geostationary orbit for ocean-colour studies include better temporal coverage, the possibility of following episodic events at the scale of hours (e.g. red tides, dissemination of sediments), and improving the match between the temporal scale of satellite observations and those of models. Other potential applications include examining the daily cycle of ocean properties e.g. aerosols, eliminating the effect of clouds from ocean-colour measurements and better observation of planetary waves.

Terms of reference for the working group include demonstrating the value of the geostationary orbit for ocean-colour observations (research and operational uses), preparing an inventory of the most significant proposed projects and existing missions, examining the complementarity of LEO and GEO orbits, and listing requirements. The WG will also focus on interagency connections and help coordinate activities.

The first meeting of the working group took place on 1 November 2008 in South Korea, following the GOCI PI workshop, in order to initialize collaboration around the COMS-1/GOCI mission. KORDI sponsored some of the IOCCG working group members to attend the workshop, which is gratefully acknowledged.