EXTENDED ABSTRACT - An update: Operational/Applications for Near Real-time MERIS Full Resolution Products
for the US Coastal Ocean.
Since March 2009 (First User Consultation Meeting, Cork) NOAA CoastWatch has made progress in defining and
refining coastal ocean color requirements, establishing collaboration, securing equipment and software, assessing
quality, and establishing preliminary flows of MERIS Full Resolution data and products for selected demonstration
areas of the conterminous U.S. coastal ocean.
To demonstrate the agency's capability for acquiring and applying data from the Ocean Color Radiometry Virtual
Constellation NOAA has identified the following seven coastal areas: Gulf of Mexico (three areas), Central and
Southern California, Chesapeake Bay, and Lake Ontario/Erie. Other geographic areas, e.g., Pacific Northwest, will
be added as requirements are known and users are enabled.
As the initial demonstration platform MERIS Full Resolution data and products, downloaded initially at CSRA
ground stations in Gatineau and Prince Albert, were retrieved from Kiruna, reformatted and co-branded with
NOAA CoastWatch and ESA logos, and posted routinely to
(http://coastwatch.chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/cb_meris_hires/daily/). Retrieved data are processed also using
NASA's SeaDAS/l2gen and published in CoastWatch and ESA formats.
Collaborators for this demonstration include federal, state and local agencies and will likely involve the following
application areas and locations: Improved warnings and nowcasts of Harmful Algal Blooms (Chesapeake Bay and
Gulf of Mexico); water quality assessments (Southern and Central California); public health/Vibrio vulnificus
predictions (Chesapeake Bay), storm water run-off ( Southern California); and emergency response (Gulf of
Mexico). Under development are the following new capabilities: detection of Microcyctis blooms (U.S. Great
Lakes) using the MERIS specific 709 nm band, and isoprene emission products thought to be useful as input to
operational air quality models run by the National Weather Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Quality assessments of native MERIS FULL Resolution data products are being contemplated using comparisons
with Reduced Resolution MERIS (for the same geographic area), SeaWiFS, and MODIS Aqua. Quality assessment
results and tools used in this assessment will be made available via CoastWatch.
NOAA will soon: Publish MERIS Full Resolution products via NOAA CoastWatch at http://coastwatch.noaa.gov
(after January 1, 2011), begin to formalize collaboration with operational and science partners, and support
availability of corresponding MERIS Full Resolution data (subject to approval). Archival of CoastWatch generated
Full Resolution products and/or data is not anticipated at the present time.
Continued support from Coastcolour is required to assure availability of data and products for CONUS areas
(sustained continuous product and data availability are important), new and enhanced product availability (e.g.,
K490 and TSM) , and establishing quality assessment collaboration.
Contributing:Heng Gu (SMRC), Kent H. Hughes (NOAA) , Phillip Keegstra (SPS), Yong Sung Kim (Dell), Xiaoming Liu (SPS), Sathya
Ramachandran SPS), and Michael Soracco (SMRC) , and Ron Vogel (SMRC) (alphabetical).
SMRC – SM Resources Corporation, Incorporated
SPS - SP Systems, Incorporated
NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Satellite Oceanography and Climatology Division (SOCD)
Dell - Dell Federal Systems
Created: November 4, 2010
Revised: November 9, 2010
U.S. CoastColour Demonstration Areas
(as of November 2010)