- SST and Ocean Color - A NOAA Perspective Kenneth S. Casey NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center USA

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- SST and Ocean Color -A NOAA
PerspectiveKenneth S. CaseyNOAA National
Oceanographic Data Center USA
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With special thanks to

• Marcia Weaks
• NOAA IOOS Program Office
• Paul DiGiacomo
• NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Applications and Research
• Linda Stathoplos
• NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite Data Production
  and Distribution
• The views expressed herein are those of the
  speakers alone and should not be considered
  official NOAA or US Government policy.

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Overview

• NOAA is
• NOAA and GHRSST
• NOAA and Ocean Color
• NOAA IOOS
• Reflections and Future Directions

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NOAA is many things..

• Research
• Operations

• Applications
• Data Stewardship

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NOAA is many things..

• Research
• Operations
• Often there is no over-arching plan coordinating
  the related activities across different offices

• Applications
• Data Stewardship
• Despite the problems with this approach, there is
  a certain strength in the diversity

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Strength in Diversity

• In both SST and Ocean Color, NOAAs activities
  have evolved organically
• NOAA groups - regardless of their office - face
  similar obstacles
• Limited funding
• Data availability
• And they share similar goals
• To get data into their users hands
• To see their products used to societal benefit
• So there is a (growing) tendency for grass-roots
  coordination

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NOAA Satellite SST Activities

• Research
• ESRL
• STAR
• NODC
• NCDC
• Operations
• STAR
• OSDPD
• NCDC
• CLASS

• Applications
• STAR
• NODC
• Data Stewardship
• NODC
• CLASS
• NCDC
• SWFSC
• PMEL
• And there are even more!!

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NOAA Satellite SST Activities

• Organically grown, but increasingly linked
  through GHRSST
• For example
• STAR-developed GOES algorithms, implemented
  operationally at OSDPD in GHRSST format, and
  archived at NODCs GHRSST Long Term Stewardship
  and Reanalysis Facility
• NCDC-developed Daily OI L4 products use NODCs
  Pathfinder data and are archived at NODC
• Those products are then served by PMEL through a
  Live Access Server to PRIDE community

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NOAA SST Future Directions

• Preparations underway for VIIRS on NPP and NPOESS
• STAR and NOAA NPOESS Data Exploitation team
  considering making our own GHRSST SSTs and/or
  converting NPOESS IPO-provided data to GHRSST
  format
• Commitments to GHRSST at grass roots level
  remain, and are growing stronger
• IOOS involvement unclear at moment, but at least
  will be a major user (more later)

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NOAA SST Future Directions

• NODC will continue as the GHRSST LTSRF
• NODC is developing AVHRR Pathfinder capability
  and will provide both V6 in GHRSST L2P and L3
  formats
• OSDPD will continue GOES L2P
• OSDPD will create MTSAT L2P (May 2008)
• OSDPD and STAR may create other GHRSST formatted
  data (e.g., MetOp AVHRR, POES-GOES blended L4,
  VIIRS, etc.)

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NOAA and GHRSST

• GHRSST Awareness is widespread in NOAAs SST
  community
• Growing need for international partners is
  broadly understood in NOAA
• Through office-level efforts, NOAA is taking its
  roles in GHRSST very seriously
• We will continue to play in the international
  arena whether it is GCOS, or GOOS, or JCOMM, or
  IOC, or ?

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NOAA and GHRSST

• The future looks bright for
• NOAA and GHRSST!

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NOAA and Ocean Color

• Reliance on foreign sensors is VERY clearly
  understood
• No current NOAA ocean color sensors
• Outlook for VIIRS is, well, ummmm, errr, hmmm
• NOAA is increasingly active in ocean color
• CoastWatch/OceanWatch and Okeanos
• MERIS operational processing
• MOBY and Cal/Val

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CoastWatch

• NOAA Ocean Color Data Processing System
  (Okeanos1) for NRT SeaWiFS and MODIS data
• 40 MODIS granules per day for Atlantic, Pacific,
  and Caribbean
• 4 SeaWiFS Swath Data Files covering US East
  Coast, West Coast and Gulf of Mexico (For
  Authorized NOAA users only)
• Output products published via Web Server and ftp
  data server
• CoastWatch Web server http//coastwatch.noaa.gov
• FTP server ftp//ftpoceanwatch.noaa.gov

1There will be a poster on the NOAA operational
Okeanos Ocean Color Processing System at the
2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Session 100 on
operational oceanography.
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CoastWatch

• Products Details
• 1 km resolution nLw, chl_a, water clarity
  (Rrs670,Rrs667, K490)
• mean and anomaly daily and multi-day composite
  mapped and projected
• CoastWatch HDF and image formats (png, GeoTiff)
• Applications of Products
• Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletins
• Water quality assessments
• Scientific Research
• Coastal Resource Habitat Management

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MERIS at NOAA CoastWatch

• An effort has begun to deliver MERIS reduced
  resolution data products operationally by the end
  of 2008, toward ensuring ocean color data
  continuity for U.S. coastal waters
• Daily download L2 data for one orbit plans to
  process 2-3 orbits daily for entire CONUS, Create
  daily mapped Chlorophyll imagery for CoastWatch
  regions
• Plan to use 4-day composites to create anomaly
  products for HABs. 4-day composites provide full
  coverage of GOM and SE-USA Coastal regions.

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MERIS at NOAA CoastWatch
An example of Automated trend tracking QA report
(these in agreement)
(these in agreement)
Time series of the mean and standard deviation of
the CoastWatch Gulf of Mexico Region for MERIS,
SeaWiFS MODIS-Aqua.
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NOAA and MOBY

• Marine Optical BuoY (MOBY) in Hawaii - A
  Vicarious Calibration Facility
• On-orbit vicarious calibration with high quality
  in situ data is necessary for accurate satellite
  ocean color products, as well as for providing
  required Climate Quality ocean color products
• Supported by NASA and NOAA, has been measuring
  hyperspectral in situ water-leaving radiance
  since 1997
• NOAA has assumed responsibility for MOBY, and is
  currently funding MOBY operations

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NOAA and MOBY

• MOBY data have significant contributions to ocean
  science community
• Only in situ data source used to vicariously
  calibrate SeaWiFS and MODIS for providing global
  ocean color products
• Contributed to assist in calibration and/or
  validation activities for other ocean color
  sensors, e.g., MERIS (ESA), OCTS (Japan), POLDER
  (France)
• Achieved more than ten years high quality in situ
  ocean optics data for scientific research and
  applications

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NOAA and MOBY

• MOBY data can also provide links between products
  derived from various ocean color sensors, and
  thus help data merging
• Vicarious calibration facilities such as MOBY (or
  more advanced instrument) are required for the
  future ocean color sensors, e.g., NPOESS/VIIRS

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NOAA OC Future Directions

• General interest in acquiring high-resolution,
  well-characterized ocean color data from non-U.S.
  satellite sensors
• Near-term interest in acquiring MERIS full
  resolution raw data (L1A) and associated sensor
  characterization and calibration information
• New improved techniques for processing
  merging data from different sensors, including
  detailed error characterization
• Cal/val and data processing collaborations,
  particularly toward production of climate quality
  data records

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IOOS/GOOS Connections

• And now, for something completely different

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U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System

• Represents a major shift in approach to ocean
  observing
• Draws together the vast network of disparate,
  federal and non-federal observing systems
• Produces a cohesive suite of data, information,
  and products at a sufficient geographic and
  temporal scale to support decision-making
• IOOS is the US contribution to the Global Ocean
  Observing System, which is the ocean component of
  GEOSS

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NOAA IOOS

• US IOOS has been around for a number of years,
  but has floundered - NOAA as lead US agency must
  provide leadership
• Enter 2007 NOAA creates its own IOOS Program
  Office
• NOAA IOOS hopes to provide that leadership,
  through a rapid demonstration of integrated
  datasets leading to societal benefit - the DIF
  - Data Integration Framework

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Reflections on NOAA IOOS

• NOAAs IOOS Program is a bit like the GMES Marine
  Core Services, but has some fundamental
  differences
• NOAA IOOS (and CoastWatch) would be interested in
  something like a coastal GlobCOLOUR (beware
  Tyranny of the Or)
• NOAA IOOS has stated publicly that it would like
  to adopt GHRSST for SSTs
• There are reasons to be excited, but the future
  is uncertain

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Closing Thoughts

• NOAA and GHRSST
• life is good
• NOAA and GlobCOLOUR?
• Hmmm.
• Well.
• Err.
• A proposal Draft a Submission Agreement

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Takk!

• Questions?
• Kenneth.Casey_at_noaa.gov