Simon Pinnock ESA Technical Officer

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Simon PinnockESA Technical Officer
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GlobColour Context and Motivation

• ESA Earth Observation Envelope Programme
• ESA EOEP-3 Declaration Specific
  Objectives...abridged
• advance the Earth Science agenda
• respond to the challenges of global change and
  of anthropogenic effects on our environment,
• through the development of appropriate new
  monitoring tools
• guarantee easy access to Earth Observation
  data, including higher level products, for both
  science
• and application uses
• ensure the maximum scientific return on ESAs
  investments in Earth Observation

• Data User Element (of EOEP)
• Building user communities through Development
  and Demonstration of user-driven applications
• of EO data
• Exploitation of ESA Earth Observation
  satellites
• - ERS 1 2
• - ENVISAT
• - Earth Explorers Cryosat-2, SMOS, GOCE,
  etc.
• - GMES Sentinels
• Drawing on research in national and European
  science programmes
• Supporting the Earth Science agenda
  GlobCarbon, GlobCover, GlobAerosol, GlobIce,
  GlobVolcano,
• GlobColour, Medspiration, GlobWave, GlobSnow,
  etc.

• Supporting future GMES services
• - Laying the foundations of a European Service
  for Global Ocean Colour
• Working towards the vision of routine
  assimilation of all available observations
  supporting
• GMES user needs (GlobModel)

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GlobColour Context and Motivation

• Why GlobColour?
• Ocean colour is an "essential climate variable"
  needed to support the carbon
• cycle monitoring requirements of the UNFCCC
• to understand the role of the
  biological pump in mitigating CO2 emissions
• to understand ocean biology, and
  what will happen to it under future
• changing conditions of warming,
  acidification, salinity, circulation,
• Encouraging full exploitation of ENVISAT MERIS
  and GMES Sentinel-3
• ocean colour instruments.
• User Consultations with IOCCG, and later IOCCP
• led to identification of a strong User
  Requirement to make combined use
• of all available global ocean colour observations
  to provide the best possible
• ocean colour climate data record to support
  global change research
• Note IOCCG recommendation on merging in Report
  2 (1999).

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GlobColour Context and Motivation
Specific Objectives of GlobColour demonstrate
the utility and value of EO-based services to the
global ocean colour user community to provide
a long time-series of ocean-colour information
for research on the marine component of the
global carbon cycle to put in place the
capacity to continue production of this time
series in the future to demonstrate the
current state of the art in merging together data
streams from different satellite based
ocean-colour sensors to demonstrate a global
NRT ocean-colour service based on merged
satellite data.
Specific User Requirements Deliver a
long time series of consistently calibrated
global ocean colour from all available EO
sensors - Chl, TSM, CDOM, water
leaving radiances, diffuse attenuation coeff,
quality flags, etc. - 1997-2007, 4km,
daily, weekly, monthly, globally
Validate against in-situ and intercompare with
other global ocean colour data sets
Provide lower spatial/temporal resolution
versions of the data set for model assimilation
Diagnostic Data Set for validation and
further algorithm development
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GlobColour Context and Motivation

• Data User Element Working Process
• 1. User consultation and formation of a User
  Group, who provide
• User Requirements Document
• Letter of Commitment to actively participate in
  the project to
• Confirm and clarify the User Requirements as
  necessary
• Provide technical guidance to the project
• Participate in the validation of the products
  and service
• To assess the utility of the products and
  service
• 2. ESA issues a competitive invitation to tender
  for the work necessary to satisfy the
• identified requirements open to EOEP programme
  participants (i.e. ESA member states)
• 3. Projects awarded to European consortia
  consisting of combination of skills scientific
  researchers,
• systems developers, etc.
• 4. Regular user consultation during progress of
  the project
• Attendance at progress meetings

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GlobColour Context and Motivation
The GlobColour Project ESA project
Budget k 975 Kick-Off 15 Nov
2005 Year 1 2006 Development, prototyping and
testing Year 2 2007 Production of data set and
validation against in-situ Year 3 2008 One-year
demonstration NRT service Consortium
ACRI-ST (F) LOV (F)
University of Plymouth (UK) ARGANS Ltd
(UK) Brockmann Consult (D)
NIVA (N) ICESS (USA) DLR
(D) User Group IOCCG - Ocean Colour
Science Requirements IOCCP - Ocean
Carbon Science Requirements UKMO-NCOF -
Operational Application Requirements
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Thank you!
http//www.esa.int/due