EurOCEAN 2000 - Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee

COASTAL REGION LONG-TERM MEASUREMENTS FOR COLOUR
REMOTE SENSING DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION
(COLORS): PROJECT STATUS
ABSTRACT
G. Zibordi 1 , L. Alberotanza 2 , R. Doerffer 3 , J. Aiken 4 ,
M.Wernand 5 , S. Boxall 6 , R. Santer 7 and O. Ni Cheileachair 8
1 CEC-JRC, Ispra, Italy; 2 CNR-ISDGM, Venice, Italy;
3 GKSS, Geesthacht, Germany; 4 NERC-PML, Plymouth, England;
5 NIOZ, Texel, The Netherlands; 6 USOU-DO, Southampton, England;
7 UL-PAMOC, Wimereux, France; 8 ISMARE, Dublin, Ireland.
COLORS is the first attempt to create a long-term European network program for the
development and validation of water colour remote sensing in coastal zones and shelf seas.
COLORS, by the end of year 2000, is aimed to complete the following activities:
i. Extensive long-term measurements over three selected sites, located in different coastal/shelf
areas (Adriatic Sea, English Channel, North Sea) representative of the main European water
types.
ii. Analysis, interpretation and processing of the data acquired, aimed at deriving bio-geophysical
marine and atmospheric parameters. These are then used to develop robust marine and
atmospheric algorithms accounting for site and season specific influences.
iii. Application of the ensuing algorithms and techniques on available satellite data. The
resulting data products are validated in order to assess the full potential of operational optical
remote sensing in European coastal waters.
1. INTRODUCTION
Observations of marine optical properties from satellites, offer a unique means to obtain
synoptic information on the constituents in the marine environment. Advanced satellite ocean
colour sensors (i.e. the already launched MOS, SeaWiFS and MODIS and the forthcoming
MERIS) have been designed to support climate and environmental studies on global scales.
However the exploitation of ocean colours data in the European coastal zones, requires
extensive development of methodologies based on comprehensive atmospheric and marine
data. COLORS is aimed at ensuring a major data collection and exploitation program for the
assessment of algorithms and methods for the operational use of satellite colour data in the
European coastal/shelf water.
2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY
The main objective of COLORS is to establish a European network of three differing sites, at
which a systematic program of long-term measurements in water and in the atmosphere is
carried out. The sites, which provide a cross section of the European coastal waters, are:
Adriatic Sea, English Channel, North Sea.
425