Projects
| Project | Abstract | Prime Company | Domain | Tags | Full text |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AEOLUS+ INNOVATION – OCEAN SUB-SURFACE PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONS | The Aeolus Ocean Color (AOC) project aims at assessing the potential of the Aeolus mission to monitor ocean sub-surface optical and biogeochemical properties based on the measurements from the wind lidar ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler [...] | NOVELTIS SAS (FR) | Science | Aeolus, Aeolus+ Innovation, Aerosols, Altitude, atmosphere, atmosphere science cluster, Ocean Indicators, ocean optics, ocean science cluster, science | The Aeolus Ocean Color (AOC) project aims at assessing the potential of the Aeolus mission to monitor ocean sub-surface optical and biogeochemical properties based on the measurements from the wind lidar ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument) at 355 nm. AOC is funded by ESA within the framework of the Aeolus + Innovation project. The retrieval scheme for the AOC products relies upon parametric relationships between the lidar signal and the parameters of interest in a stepwise approach: “lidar-derived optical” parameters that can be inferred from the two lidar profiles in the Mie and Rayleigh channels: the particulate attenuated backscatter βP and the attenuation coefficient KL; “ocean optical” parameters related to ocean optical properties: the diffuse attenuation coefficient (Kd(355)) and the particulate back-scattering parameter (bbp(355)) that can be derived from the lidar-derived parameters; “biogeochemical”parameters: the particulate organic carbon (POC), the phytoplankton carbon (Cphyto) and the coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) that can be derived from the optical parameters. The prototype AOC product will be generated over a set of regions of interest (English Channel, tropical gyres, Polar Ocean), and evaluated against available ground truth as well as other comparable remotely sensed products and biogeochemical model simulations. |
| AEOLUS+ INNOVATION – CDOM-PROXY RETRIEVAL FROM AEOLUS OBSERVATIONS (COLOR) | The objective of the COLOR (CDOM-proxy retrieval from aeOLus ObseRvations) project is to assess the feasibility of deriving an in-water AEOLUS product from the analysis of the ocean sub-surface backscattered component of the 355 nm signal [...] | CNR – INSTITUTE FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSING OF THE ENVIRONMENT (IREA) (IT) | Science | Aeolus, Aeolus+ Innovation, atmosphere, atmosphere science cluster, Ocean Indicators, ocean optics, ocean science cluster, science | The objective of the COLOR (CDOM-proxy retrieval from aeOLus ObseRvations) project is to assess the feasibility of deriving an in-water AEOLUS product from the analysis of the ocean sub-surface backscattered component of the 355 nm signal acquired by the ALADIN (Atmospheric LAser Doppler INstrument). The project will focus on the potential retrieval of the ocean particle optical properties at 355 nm: diffuse attenuation coefficient for downwelling irradiance, Kd [m-1], and sub-surface hemispheric particulate backscatter coefficient, bbp [m-1]. COLOR activities are organized in three different but interacting phases: 1) Consolidation of the scientific requirements; 2) Implementation and assessment of AEOLUS COLOR prototype product; 3) Scientific roadmap. Furthermore, data collection activity will feed phase 1 and 2, encompassing both AEOLUS dataset and the ancillary reference/validation datasets. The overall proposed approach is based on the transfer of the lidar consolidated know-how from atmospheric to oceanic applications through AEOLUS observation data analysis and ocean radiative transfer numerical modelling. |
| Arctic + Salinity | Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) is a key indicator of the freshwater fluxes and an important variable to understand the changes the Arctic is facing. However, salinity in-situ measurements are very sparse in the Arctic region. For this reason, remote [...] | ARGANS LIMITED (GB) | Science | ocean science cluster, oceans, polar science cluster, science | Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) is a key indicator of the freshwater fluxes and an important variable to understand the changes the Arctic is facing. However, salinity in-situ measurements are very sparse in the Arctic region. For this reason, remote sensing salinity measurements (currently provided by L-band radiometry satellites, SMOS and SMAP) are of special relevance for this region. The retrieval of SSS in the Arctic represents a challenge, because brightness temperatures measured by L-band satellites are less sensitive to salinity in cold waters. An additional drawback consists in the presence of sea ice, that contaminates the brightness temperature and must be adequately processed. The ESA Arctic+ Salinity project (Dec 2018 – June 2020) will contribute to reduce the knowledge gap in the characterization of the freshwater flux changes in the Arctic region. The objectives of this project are the following: 1. Develop a new algorithm and novel approaches with the aim of producing the best quality validated SMOS SSS product in the Arctic region with its corresponding accuracy. Additionally, SMOS and SMAP data will be combined with the aim to improve the radiometric accuracy and the characterization of the product biases and stability. 2. Generate a long-term salinity dataset from 2011 up to date to be publicly offered to the scientific community. The products will be daily distributed with a temporal resolution of 9 days and a spatial resolution of 25Km (EASE Grid 2.0). 3. Assess the relation between the dynamics of SMOS salinity with respect to land freshwater fluxes (Greenland and glacier flows) and ocean freshwater fluxes (rivers and E-P balance) using model outputs. This has the objective to quantify the freshwater fluxes through SSS products. 4. Assess the impact of the new SSS satellite data in a data assimilation system (the TOPAZ4 system, both in forecast and reanalysis mode) with the idea that, if an improvement is demonstrated, the assimilation of SMOS & SMAP products in TOPAZ will be part of the new Arctic reanalysis and forecast products on the CMEMS portal. 5. Define a roadmap describing the future work to better characterize the freshwater fluxes for the Arctic regions. The output of this project will be of great benefit for the on-going ESA Sea Surface Salinity Climate Change Initiative (CCI) project, which started in February 2018. The outputs of the project will be: 1. The distribution to the scientific community of the best-up-to-date sea surface salinity maps from SMOS and from the combination of SMOS and SMAP with their corresponding uncertainties. 2. Explore the feasibility and utility of assimilating the surface salinity maps product in the TOPAZ4 model. The potential problem the project face is the sparse in-situ data availability in the area which is needed for a complete validation assessment. Other potential problems are the sea ice edge that has a direct effect in the brightness temperature and the RFI contamination. But several solutions have already been identified. |
| ARKTALAS HOAVVA PROJECT | The multi-disciplinary, long-term, satellite-based Earth Observations (EO) form a tremendous synergy of data and information products that should to be more systematically and consistently explored, from the short synoptic time scales to the [...] | NANSEN ENVIRONMENTAL AND REMOTE SENSING CENTER (NO) | Science | cryosphere, ocean science cluster, oceans, polar science cluster, science | The multi-disciplinary, long-term, satellite-based Earth Observations (EO) form a tremendous synergy of data and information products that should to be more systematically and consistently explored, from the short synoptic time scales to the longer decadal time scales. This lays the rationale for the ESA funded Arktalas Hoavva study project. A stepwise multi-modal analyses framework approach benefitting from native resolution satellite observations together with complementary in-situ data, model fields, analyses and visualization system and data assimilation tools will be applied. Following this approach, the overall goal is to remove knowledge gaps and advance the insight and quantitative understanding of sea ice, ocean and atmosphere interactive processes and their mutual feedback across a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. In turn, four major existing interlinked Arctic Scientific research Challenges (ASC) will be investigated, including: ASC-1: Characterize Arctic Amplification and its impact (ASC-1) Central elements (not exclusive) are: – reduction in sea ice extent and concentration; – changes in albedo; – changes in the radiation balance; – increased air temperature; – delayed onset of sea ice freezing; – early onset of sea ice melting; – increasing area of melt ponds and polynias; – increased lead fraction; – changes in snow cover and SWE; – changes in ocean-atmosphere momentum, heat exchange and gas exchanges; – reduction in fast ice area; – thinning of sea ice thickness; – changes in optical conditions in the upper ocean with influence on the biology and marine ecosystem; – more favourable conditions for sea ice drift; – more meltwater; – larger fetch; – enhanced wave-sea ice interaction; – more wave induced sea ice break-up; – modifications to atmospheric boundary layer and changes in weather pattern; – influence on Arctic vortex and hence teleconnection to mid-latitudes. ASC-2: Characterize the impact of more persistent and larger area open water on sea ice dynamics Building on ASC-1, this is associated with: – increasing momentum transfer to the upper ocean leading to more turbulent mixing and possibly entrainment of warm Atlantic Water below the halocline; – increasing Ekman effects; – changes in sea ice growth, salt rejection and halocline formation; – larger fetch and lower frequency waves penetrating further into the ice covered regions leading to more floe-break-up; – increasing lead fraction and more sea ice melting; – reduction in sea ice flow size, age, thicknesses and extent and subsequent change in sea ice mechanical behaviour; – possibly more abundance of internal waves and mesoscale and sub-mesoscale eddies generated in the open ocean with subsequent abilities to propagate into the ice covered regions leading to changes in sea ice deformation and dynamics. ASC-3: Understand, characterize and predict the impact of extreme event storms in sea-ice formation Growing areas of open water within the Arctic Ocean and the neighbouring seas will be more effectively exposed to extreme events. Cold air outbreak and polar lows, for instance, are known to have strong impact in the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ), including; – enhanced momentum transfer and vertical mixing; – enhanced sea ice formation; – enhanced formation of unstable stratification in the atmospheric boundary layer; – more low cloud formations changing the radiation balance; – set up abnormal wave field to strengthen wave induced sea ice break-up; – abnormal impact on the pycnocline and subsequent entrainment of heat into the upper mixed. A central question is eventually whether the Arctic amplification will trigger increasing frequency of occurrences and strength of extremes. ASC-4: Understand, characterize and predict the Arctic ocean spin-up The ongoing Arctic amplification and subsequent changes, mutual interactions and feedback mechanisms are also expected to influence the basin scale atmospheric and ocean circulation within the Arctic Ocean. In particular, this will address: – freshwater distribution and transport; – importance of Ekman pumping; – changes in water mass properties; – changes in upper ocean stratification and mixing; – changes in sub-surface heat exchange; – possibly more abundance of mesoscale and sub-mesoscale eddies and internal waves generated in the open ocean with subsequent abilities to propagate into the sea ice covered regions. The Arktalas Hoavva project kicked-off 9 July 2019 and will be executed over a 24 months period through the following seven interconnected tasks with mutual input-output feeds as schematically illustrated in the figure below. One of the major outcomes of the project is six dedicated research papers emerging from Task 3 that are specifically addressing the Arctic Scientific Challenges. These papers will be published in peer review journals. Moreover, the project will develop a visualization portal in polar-stereographic configuration that will be connected to the Arktalas data archive and allow users to access and make use of the Arktalas satellite-based, in-situ and model-based dataset during the project. |
| Atlantic Meridional Transect Ocean Flux from satellite campaign (AMT4OceanSatFlux) | This project estimates of the air-sea flux of CO2 calculated from a suite of satellite products over a range of Atlantic Ocean provinces. It deploys state-of-the-art eddy co-variance methods to provide independent verification of satellite [...] | Plymouth Marine Laboratory (GB) | Science | ocean science cluster, oceans, science | This project estimates of the air-sea flux of CO2 calculated from a suite of satellite products over a range of Atlantic Ocean provinces. It deploys state-of-the-art eddy co-variance methods to provide independent verification of satellite estimates of CO2 gas exchange over the Atlantic Ocean. The project provides Fiducial Reference Measurements from the AMT28 (from 23rd September to 29th October 2018) and AMT 29 (from 13th October to 25th November 2019) field campaigns to enable independent verification and validation of the satellite CO2 air-sea flux estimates both at point scales and on scales that relate to satellite data over a range of oceanographic conditions. Global algorithms that are being used to study ocean acidification from using satellite data are also being evaluated and refined within the project, using high spatio-temporal resolution underway measurements made on AMT28 and AMT29 field campaigns. |
| BALTIC+ Salinity Dynamics | This project aims to study the potential benefit of incorporating satellite-derived Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) measurements into oceanographic and environmental applications within the Baltic Sea. For such purpose, a team led by ARGANS Ltd (UK) [...] | ARGANS FRANCE (FR) | Science | Baltic, ocean science cluster, science | This project aims to study the potential benefit of incorporating satellite-derived Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) measurements into oceanographic and environmental applications within the Baltic Sea. For such purpose, a team led by ARGANS Ltd (UK) with participation of Barcelona Expert Centre (BEC / ICM-CSIC, Spain) and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI, Finland) will develop an innovative SSS product from the measurements obtained by the Earth Explorer SMOS. It incorporates advanced techniques for noise and bias correction to deal with the specific difficulties that the retrieval of salinity has in the region: land/sea contamination, sea/ice contamination, manmade radio-frequency interferences, and limitations in the current dielectric constant. The project will generate data by modifying substantially the existing production chain from L0 data to L4 maps, aiming to obtain meaningful information for applications. The characteristics of the final products will be enhanced both spatially and temporally thanks to data fusion, in order to meet the end-user requirements. SSS accuracy will be also improved to meet the needs of the scientific community operating in this basin. In the first half of the project, the focus will be in improving the brightness temperatures and adequate the image reconstruction process specifically for the Baltic Sea. In the second half of the project, the emphasis will be in the removal of remaining biases and generation of the fused L4 products, as well as assessing the performance and impact it has in the various case studies. Specific attention will be drawn to investigate the added-value of this new product to address the scientific challenges associated to salinity, as identified by Baltic Earth community: salinity annual trends and budgets; insights of the coupling mechanisms involved in the interfaces atmosphere-ice-sea; climatological projections. In addition, it is expected to estimate how other types of studies would benefit of incorporating SSS, like regional biochemical models, or any other in which frontal areas identification could be of relevance. For instance, river run-offs, sea ice formation/melting and, marginally, North Sea water intrusions. The project benefits of the existence of a long time series of observations provided by SMOS, which allows the team to explore longer time scales. The expected higher time and spatial coverage will be key factors in the outcome of this project, in a region in which in situ observations of salinity are scarce or concentrated in the coastal areas. It is expected that the results of this activity will lead towards an increase in the presence of SSS data. |
| BALTIC+ Sea-Land biogeochemical linkages (SeaLaBio) | The overall goal of the ESA funded project Baltic+ SeaLaBio (Sea-Land Biogeochemical linkages) running from Dec 2018 to May 2020 is to develop methods for assessing carbon dynamics and eutrophication in the Baltic Sea through integrated use of [...] | FINNISH ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE (SYKE) (FI) | Science | Baltic, carbon cycle, carbon science cluster, land, ocean science cluster, oceans, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3 | The overall goal of the ESA funded project Baltic+ SeaLaBio (Sea-Land Biogeochemical linkages) running from Dec 2018 to May 2020 is to develop methods for assessing carbon dynamics and eutrophication in the Baltic Sea through integrated use of EO, models, and ground-based data The poor state of the Baltic Sea again became apparent during summer 2018 in form of massive and long-lasting cyanobacteria blooms. Warm and sunny weather, combined with good availability of nutrients led to the worst algae situation in a decade. Climate change is expected to cause further warming in this region making these events more and more common in the future. The decades of dumping untreated waste water into the Baltic Sea and the use of fertilizers in agriculture have resulted in strong internal loading. While the water treatment situation has improved and fertilizers are being used more responsibly, the flux of carbon and nutrients from land to sea is still great and in many areas largely unknown. The Sentinel satellites of the Copernicus programme offer an excellent opportunity for characterizing and monitoring the fluxes and processes occurring in coastal zones. This in turn will lead to improved process understanding. With this in mind, the Baltic+ SeaLaBio research project aims to find an answer to the question: • Can we quantify the carbon flux from land to sea with Sentinel-3 (S3) OLCI and Sentinel-2 (S2) MSI data in the Baltic Sea region? And if not, what are the main obstacles and potential solutions to be addressed in the future? In addition to frequent cyanobacteria blooms, the high absorption by colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) causes problems to the utilization of EO for monitoring the state of the Baltic Sea. The available processors for S3 and S2 often provide overestimated values for Chlorophyll a and underestimate CDOM. The main source of these problems is the failure of the atmospheric correction to provide reasonable marine reflectances. Thus, the project focuses especially on improving the atmospheric correction and in-water inversion algorithms for S3 and S2 images. The developed methods will be validated with in situ data collected from different parts of the Baltic Sea. We will also improve the spatial resolution of a biogeochemical (BGC) model (Ecological ReGional Ocean Model, ERGOM) and compare its output against the EO results. S3 OLCI has a better band combination for water quality estimation than S2 but its spatial resolution limits its use in river estuaries and archipelagos common in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea. Hence, the synergistic use of these two data sources can lead to improved coverage in coastal regions without compromising the thematic quality of the data. The project will actively disseminate its progress and results in various Baltic Sea and EO events. |
| BALTIC+ SEAL – Sea Level | The current knowledge of the water circulation in the Baltic Sea comes essentially from in situ observations and models. The Baltic+ SEAL (Sea Level) Project aims at providing a consistent description of the sea level variability in the Baltic [...] | TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH (DE) | Science | altimeter, applications, Baltic, marine environment, ocean science cluster, science | The current knowledge of the water circulation in the Baltic Sea comes essentially from in situ observations and models. The Baltic+ SEAL (Sea Level) Project aims at providing a consistent description of the sea level variability in the Baltic Sea area in terms of seasonal and inter-annual variation and put the results in relationship with the forcing associated with this variability, using a developed dedicated coastal altimetry product. The objective is to create and validate a novel multi-mission sea level product in order to improve the performances of the current state-of-the-art of the ESA efforts in this topic: the Sea Level Climate Change Initiative (SL_cci). In this sense, this project can actually be considered as a laboratory in which advanced solutions in the pre-processing and post-processing of satellite altimetry can be tested before being transferred to global initiatives, such as the future phases of SL_cci. The Baltic Sea includes the two main areas in which the use of satellite altimetry has been severely limited since the start of the “altimetry era”: the presence of sea ice and the proximity of the coast. During the winter season and the sea ice maximum in end of February, 40% of the Baltic Sea is covered by sea ice. The Team aims to apply an unsupervised classification approach to all possible altimetry satellite missions treated in this project (TOPEX-Poseidon, ERS-1/2, Envisat, Jason-1/2/3, SARAL/AltiKa, CryoSat-2, Sentinel-3A/B) to get reliable open water observations and adapt the classification approach to the sea-ice/open-water conditions and different satellite altimetry mission characteristics (e.g. pulse-limited, SAR). The Baltic Sea area is also strongly impacted by Vertical Land Motion and in particular by the glacial isostatic adjustment. As it has the advantage of being an area very well sampled by tide gauges, which measure relative sea level, the Project aims at constituting a more reliable source to compare the absolute sea level from altimetry with the absolute sea level obtained by subtracting the Vertical Land Motion from the trends at the tide gauge and could even be the data source for experiments of differentiation between TG and altimetry trends in the absence of GPS measurements. |
| BathySent – An Innovative Method to Retrieve Global Coastal Bathymetry from Sentinel-2 | The BathySent project aims at the development of an automated method for mapping coastal bathymetry (water depths) on the basis of Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. The interest of using Sentinel-2 data lies on the capacity to cover large areas [...] | BUREAU DE RECHERCHES GEOLOGIQUES ET MINIERES (BRGM) (FR) | Science | coastal zone, ocean science cluster, permanently open call, science | The BathySent project aims at the development of an automated method for mapping coastal bathymetry (water depths) on the basis of Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. The interest of using Sentinel-2 data lies on the capacity to cover large areas (National and European scale targeted), while benefiting from the high repeat cycle (5 days) of the mission. The systematic acquisition plan of Sentinel-2 is of major interest for studying and monitoring coastal morphodynamics. The proposed methodology avoids limitation of exiting techniques in terms of dependency on water turbidity and requirement for calibration. The main objective of the project is to propose a method for deriving coastal bathymetry on wide areas (National/European scale) based on Sentinel-2 data and assess its performances. Today knowledge of near-shore bathymetry is essential for multiple applications such as for the study of submarine morphodynamics. These data are vital for planning sustainable coastal development, coastal risks assessments (including tsunamis) and conservation of submarines ecosystems. Moreover, they represent a crucial input for near-shore navigation and submarine resources exploration. The reasons why space-borne remote-sensing techniques must play an essential role in retrieving near-shore bathymetry are threefold. First, space-borne imagery makes it possible to access remote areas with wide spatial coverage at high spatial resolution. Second, because space-borne imagery is acquired on a regular basis, a historical data archive is accessible for most sensors, which enables scientists to access information from the past. Third, the cost of the data is relatively affordable compared to airborne or ground missions. In the BathySent project, we propose to extract bathymetry from a single Sentinel-2 dataset, exploiting the time lag that exists between two bands on the focal plane of the Sentinel 2 sensor. To tackle the issue of estimating bathymetry using two Sentinel 2 images acquired quasi simultaneously, we plan to develop a method based on cross-correlation and wavelet analysis that exploits the spatial and temporal characteristics of the Sentinel 2 dataset to jointly extract both ocean swell celerity (c) and wavelengths (λ). Our team has already started to develop this method based on the French Space Agency’s (CNES) SPOT 5 dataset (Système Probatoire pour l’Observation de La Terre) with promising results (Pourpardin et al., 2015). We called it the CWB method, which stands for Correlation, Wavelets and Bathymetry. Our method combines the direct measurement of c presented in (de Michele et al., 2012) with an original wavelet-based adaptive λ estimate (that we published in Poupardin et al., 2014) to retrieve a spatially dense cloud of (λ, c) couples that are then used to estimate water depth (h) via the dispersion relation presented in equation (1). The method preferably applies to the zone between the coast and an area of depth less than or equal to half the wavelength of the waves (typically up to a hundred meters deep), with the exception of the wave breaking zone. Bibliography Poupardin, A., D. Idier M. de Michele D. Raucoules “Water depth inversion from a single SPOT-5 dataset” IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. vol. 54 no. 4 pp. 2329-2342 Apr. 2016. de Michele M., Leprince S., Thiébot J., Raucoules D., Binet R., 2012, “Direct Measurement of Ocean Waves Velocity Field from a Single SPOT-5 Dataset”, Remote Sensing of Environment, vol 119, pp 266–271. |
| BICEP – Biological Pump and Carbon Exchange Processes | The ocean carbon cycle is a vital part of the global carbon cycle. It has been estimated that around a quarter of anthropogenically-produced emissions of CO2, caused from the burning of fossil fuels and land use change, have been absorbed by the [...] | Plymouth Marine Laboratory (GB) | Science | carbon cycle, carbon science cluster, ocean science cluster, oceans, permanently open call, science | The ocean carbon cycle is a vital part of the global carbon cycle. It has been estimated that around a quarter of anthropogenically-produced emissions of CO2, caused from the burning of fossil fuels and land use change, have been absorbed by the ocean. On the other hand, significant advances have been made recently to expand and enhance the quality of a wide range of Remote Sensing based products capturing different aspects of the ocean carbon cycle. Building on recommendations made in a series of recent meetings and reports, on ESA lead initiatives and projects and on other relevant international programmes, the objective of the BICEP project is to bring these developments together into an holistic exercise to further advance our capacity to better characterise from a synergetic use of space data, in-situ measurements and model outputs, the different components of the ocean biological carbon pump, its pools and fluxes, its variability in space and time and the understanding of its processes and interactions with the earth system. To achieve this goal, the BICEP project will first synthesise the current state of knowledge in the field and produce a consolidated set of scientific requirements that define the products to be generated, as well as how these products will be evaluated and used to produce an enhanced BICEP dataset. Major emphasis will be placed on developing unified products to ensure that the carbon budgets made are in balance. Uncertainties in the derived products will also be quantified. A large in situ dataset of ocean carbon pools and fluxes will be created, to be used to evaluate and select the algorithms, with a focus on five key test sites, representative of the range of conditions in the global ocean. Using these selected algorithms, a 20-year time series of data will be generated, built through application of the selected algorithms to the ESA OC-CCI time series, a merged, bias-corrected ocean-colour data record explicitly designed for long-term analysis. The dataset will be used as input to a novel, satellite-based characterisation of the ocean biological carbon pump, quantifying the pools and fluxes, how they vary in time and space, and how they compare with ocean model estimates. The satellite-based Ocean Biological Cabon Pump analysis will then be placed in the context of carbon cycling in other domains of the Earth System, through engagement with Earth System modellers and climate scientists. Finally, a workshop will be organized, to be used as a vehicle to engage the international community in a discussion on how the BICEP work could be pushed forward, and integrated with results from other components of the ocean carbon cycle (e.g. CO2 air-flux and ocean acidification) not covered in the project, and how the representation of satellite-based ocean carbon work could be further improved in the context of large international Earth System analysis, such as the Global Carbon Project and assessments made within the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). The proposed work will be delivered by a consortium of twelve international Institutes, led by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML, Plymouth, UK) and composed of top-level scientists, with collective expertise on Remote Sensing, statistical modelling, ocean carbon cycling, theoretical ecology and Earth System science. |
| Biodiversity in the Open Ocean: Mapping, Monitoring and Modelling (BOOMS) | Increasing pressure due to anthropogenic drivers is leading to a reduction of global biodiversity and its associated benefits at the planetary scale. In open ocean (seafloor depth greater than 200 m) the most important direct drivers of [...] | Plymouth Marine Laboratory (GB) | Science | biodiversity flagship, biodiversity science cluster, coastal processes, coastal zone, Ecosystems, marine environment, ocean health flagship, ocean science cluster, oceans, science, sea surface topography | Increasing pressure due to anthropogenic drivers is leading to a reduction of global biodiversity and its associated benefits at the planetary scale. In open ocean (seafloor depth greater than 200 m) the most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss is fishing and extraction of seafood, with a lesser but rapidly increasing importance of climate change, pollution and invasive species. These drivers have accelerated in the last 50 years and they are predicted to continue, despite international efforts in the last decades. To guide further action, it is, therefore, urgent and important to develop “fit-for-purpose” observation tools. These observations should be capable of assessing and monitoring how the community structure and function of coastal ecosystems respond to the anthropogenic and natural drivers in a changing climate. The BOOMS project aims to provide the best possible characterisation of oceanic seascapes (habitats defined by physical, chemical or biological characteristics), and its relationship to Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) globally. It will produce a >10-year time series of seascapes based on 4-km resolution remote sensing data over the global ocean, combining independent datasets from advanced algorithms of ocean colour and sea surface temperature. BOOMS will focus on three Science Case Studies, for different trophic levels: phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish. In particular, this project main objectives are: Identify and characterise critical applications (Science Case Studies) of remote sensing to study open ocean biodiversity, with a focus on dynamic seascapes. Develop a global dataset and evaluate its application for each Science Case Study. Engage with the community of biodiversity stakeholders (scientific and Early Adopters) and the remote sensing community throughout the project. Define the activities necessary to utilise current and planned sensors to detect measures of marine biodiversity; or define new approaches, if the existing ones are not considered capable to fulfil the targeted science objectives. |
| Biodiversity of the Coastal Ocean: Monitoring with Earth observation (BiCOME) | Increasing pressure on nature due to anthropogenic drivers is leading to a reduction of global biodiversity and its associated benefits at the planetary scale. In coastal environments, the most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss are [...] | Plymouth Marine Laboratory (GB) | Applications | biodiversity flagship, biodiversity science cluster, coastal processes, coastal zone, Ecosystems, marine environment, ocean health flagship, ocean science cluster, oceans, science | Increasing pressure on nature due to anthropogenic drivers is leading to a reduction of global biodiversity and its associated benefits at the planetary scale. In coastal environments, the most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss are fishing, land and sea use, climate change and pollution. These drivers have accelerated in the last 50 years, and they are predicted to continue, despite international efforts in the last decades. To guide further action, it is therefore urgent and important to develop “fit-for-purpose” observation tools. These observations should be capable of assessing and monitoring how the community structure and function of coastal ecosystems will respond to the anthropogenic and natural drivers in a changing climate. BiCOME aims to develop and provide the necessary evidence and promote a set of global Earth Observation products for biodiversity science and policy for the coastal zone. In particular this project will: Identify and characterise critical applications (Pilot Studies) of remote sensing to study coastal biodiversity. Evaluate existing and planned sensor capabilities for each Pilot Study. Engage with the community of biodiversity stakeholders (scientific and policy makers) and the remote sensing community throughout the project. Define the activities necessary to utilise current and planned sensors to detect measures of marine biodiversity; or define new approaches, if the existing ones are not considered capable to fulfil the targeted science objectives. Related news on ESA website: Sentinel-2 unveils the seasonal rhythm of intertidal seagrass |
| Coastal erosion 1 | The Coastal Erosion project shall be conceived as EO application project that aim at developing innovative EO products and methods in response to authoritative end-user requirements. The Coastal Erosion project shall prepare the ground for a [...] | I-SEA (FR) | Applications | applications, Atlantic, coastal zone, ocean science cluster | The Coastal Erosion project shall be conceived as EO application project that aim at developing innovative EO products and methods in response to authoritative end-user requirements. The Coastal Erosion project shall prepare the ground for a long-term exploitation by large user communities, and is expected to provide substantial and concrete benefits to the targeted user communities. The source of EO data used, the novelty of the EO derived products, the innovating algorithmic approaches but also from the awareness and readiness of the user community involved. The innovative aspects of the Coastal Erosion project shall comply with the above prerequisite of the most innovative aspects of the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions of the European Copernicus initiative combined with the ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat and SPOT archives to provide the best products suited to end user requirements over the past 25 year. The scope of the Coastal Erosion project is the development and demonstration of innovative EO products that will be used by users communities responsible to monitor and control this process. Together with the champion user organizations, a set of innovative products and services shall be developed, including a scientifically sound validation, a comprehensive user assessment and a representative service roll-out analysis. While maintaining the openness of the scope and domains of innovation, the Coastal Erosion project shall develop innovative approaches that best exploit the novel observational capabilities of the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 constellations. The Sentinel missions of the European Copernicus initiative brings new observational capabilities that were not available beforehand and, as a consequence, offers unprecedented opportunities to address these R&D priority issues. In particular the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, used individually or jointly, significantly improve the quality and adequacy of High Resolution (HR) satellite observations in both radar and optical domains. In order to fully exploit these new capabilities, additional R&D efforts are needed. The Coastal Erosion project is expected to provide the ideal platform to undertake these R&D activities in close partnership with key user organizations that best represent their respective communities. |
| Coastal erosion 2 | The Coastal Erosion project shall be conceived as EO application project that aim at developing innovative EO products and methods in response to authoritative end-user requirements. The Coastal Erosion project shall prepare the ground for a [...] | ARGANS LIMITED (GB) | Applications | Atlantic, coastal zone, ocean science cluster | The Coastal Erosion project shall be conceived as EO application project that aim at developing innovative EO products and methods in response to authoritative end-user requirements. The Coastal Erosion project shall prepare the ground for a long-term exploitation by large user communities, and is expected to provide substantial and concrete benefits to the targeted user communities. The source of EO data used, the novelty of the EO derived products, the innovating algorithmic approaches but also from the awareness and readiness of the user community involved. The innovative aspects of the Coastal Erosion project shall comply with the above prerequisite of the most innovative aspects of the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions of the European Copernicus initiative combined with the ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat and SPOT archives to provide the best products suited to end user requirements over the past 25 year. The scope of the Coastal Erosion project is the development and demonstration of innovative EO products that will be used by users communities responsible to monitor and control this process. Together with the champion user organizations, a set of innovative products and services shall be developed, including a scientifically sound validation, a comprehensive user assessment and a representative service roll-out analysis. While maintaining the openness of the scope and domains of innovation, the Coastal Erosion project shall develop innovative approaches that best exploit the novel observational capabilities of the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 constellations. The Sentinel missions of the European Copernicus initiative brings new observational capabilities that were not available beforehand and, as a consequence, offers unprecedented opportunities to address these R&D priority issues. In particular the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, used individually or jointly, significantly improve the quality and adequacy of High Resolution (HR) satellite observations in both radar and optical domains. In order to fully exploit these new capabilities, additional R&D efforts are needed. The Coastal Erosion project is expected to provide the ideal platform to undertake these R&D activities in close partnership with key user organizations that best represent their respective communities. |
| CYMS (Scaling-up Cyclone Monitoring Service with Sentinel-1) | CYMS is an ESA-funded project aiming at scaling up an operational service for Tropical Cyclone (TC) monitoring, in view of its potential integration as part of a Copernicus Service. The main scientific and technical objectives are to:Develop a [...] | CLS COLLECTE LOCALISATION SATELLITES (FR) | Science | ocean science cluster, oceans, permanently open call, science, Sentinel-1, SMOS | CYMS is an ESA-funded project aiming at scaling up an operational service for Tropical Cyclone (TC) monitoring, in view of its potential integration as part of a Copernicus Service. The main scientific and technical objectives are to: Develop a sustainable acquisition strategy dedicated to TC ; Consolidate S-1 end-to-end processing chains for ocean surface wind field with dedicated and up-to-date algorithms for extreme events ; Build an archive center with homogeneous and consistent l2 products, for the TC product validation purpose and scientific applications ; Build a single integrated portal easing dissemination and outreach activities. |
| deteCtion and threAts of maRinE Heat waves (CAREHeat) | CNR-INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCES-ISMAR (IT) | Science | biodiversity science cluster, blue economy, carbon cycle, climate, Ecosystems, marine environment, ocean health flagship, ocean heat budget, ocean science cluster, oceans, SST | ||
| Earth Observation Advanced science Tools for Sea level Extreme Events (EOatSEE) | Earth Observation Advanced science Tools for Sea level Extreme Events (EOatSEE) is a project funded by ESA and proposed by a consortium of institutions and companies that are internationally recognized for their work in the Marine, Coastal and [...] | Deimos Engenharia (PT) | Science | altimeter, bathymetry and seafloor topography, coastal processes, coastal zone, Erosion and Sedimentation, natural hazards and disaster risk, ocean science cluster, ocean waves, oceans, rivers, science, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3, Sentinel-6, surface water, tides | Earth Observation Advanced science Tools for Sea level Extreme Events (EOatSEE) is a project funded by ESA and proposed by a consortium of institutions and companies that are internationally recognized for their work in the Marine, Coastal and Earth Observation topics. It aims to provide an advanced reconstruction of the relevant processes included in extreme sea level (ESL) events and its related coastal hazards, by taking advantage of the novel capabilities and synergies offered by the latest advances in EO technology. The solid scientific knowledge arising from EOatSEE therefore shall enhance the fundamental scientific understanding and predictive capacity of such events, as well as our potential to better assess the related risk and the vulnerability of coastal zones. Therefore, following an initial phase for scientific requirements consolidation, EOatSEE will address the following three main science cases domains, which represent the main drivers for the proposed work: Science case 1 – Predictability: drivers of extreme sea level flooding hazards Science case 2 – Process understanding: the cascade effect of extreme sea level events on long-term coastal evolution considering the dynamic morphological response Science case 3 – Assessment and risk and vulnerability: the tipping points of coastal systems To accomplish such scientific and technical objectives, EOatSEE methodological approach is divided in two main domains: short-term – where Science case 1 will be addressed using three distinct approaches: a high resolution downscaling process-based modelling approach (HRDW), together with the new EO-products implemented in the model chain; a linear summation empirical modelling downscaling method (LSDW), considering coastal morphology as passive (no changes along time); a reduced complexity forecasting coastal evolution model (ForCE), which adds the capacity to simulate active morphology (morphological response along the time, due to changes in water levels and waves). long-term – where Science cases 1 and 2 will be addressed using the LSDW and ForCE approaches, considering the extremely high computational cost of performing long-term high-resolution numerical modelling as in HRDW; a combination of both short-term and long-term approaches shall also be employed to address Science case 3. The project also includes the development of a pilot program of scientific research and knowledge transfer to early-adopters, focused on six different use cases located in key vulnerable areas. Specific applications are to be employed by these engaged end-users for knowledge-based decision making, evaluating the added value of EO-products on the high-resolution downscaling modelling tools and within historical analysis and future projections of ESL events. Moreover, a community Scientific Roadmap should be developed aimed at transferring the outcomes of the EOatSEE into future scientific activities and indicating potential topics for additional research. The kickoff meeting for EOatSEE was held on Friday 24 June 2022. If you are interested in contributing to the scientific discussion or accessing any of the data sets it will produce, please contact the Project Manager via the web site above. |
| Earth Observation data For Science and Innovation in the Black Sea (EO4SIBS) | In the frame of the ESA Regional Initiatives, a set of coordinated activities between science, public sector, industry growth and infrastructure components focussing on regional priorities with high interest for Member States, a number of [...] | UNIVERSITY OF LIEGE (BE) | Science | Black Sea and Danube, carbon science cluster, ocean science cluster, oceans, regional initiatives, science, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3 | In the frame of the ESA Regional Initiatives, a set of coordinated activities between science, public sector, industry growth and infrastructure components focussing on regional priorities with high interest for Member States, a number of Science and Application projects are being runned for the Black Sea and Danube region. In this context, the EO4SIBS (Earth Observation data For Science and Innovation in the Black Sea) project is dedicated to Ocean Science. The objectives of this project are: To develop a new generation of algorithms that can ingest the wealth of spatial, temporal and spectral information provided by recent sensors providing high quality reference products for the blue and green ocean. In particular, regarding Ocean Colour derived products, innovative, high quality reference products of Chl-a, Total Suspended Matter (TSM) and turbidity products will be generated for the whole Black Sea geographical area, with a special focus on the western part directly influenced by the Danube River plume. Merged products will be generated to combine the high temporal resolution of S-3 OLCI and high spatial resolution of S-2 MSI satellite products and capture the optimal spatio-temporal coverage over the Black Sea waters. Concerning altimeter datasets, Level-3 Sentinel-3A [2016, 2018] and Cryosat-2 [2011, 2018] along-track product will be generated and their impact for coastal sea level trend study in the Black Sea assessed, and Level-4 multi-mission gridded products over the [2011, 2018] for improved mesoscale studies. Finally, 10 year (2010-2020) of improved gap-free high resolution salinity products will be generated. To collect new data to support the development of novel algorithms and to propose laboratory analyses of the highest quality To build novel composite products that integrate the satellite information with that from robotic platforms and numerical ocean models; To assess how the use of EO data improves our knowledge of good environmental status (GES) and climate change in the Black Sea. In particular three scientific use cases will be assessed : Physical oceanography and biochemical ecosystems; Black Sea level dynamics and trends; Deoxygenation. To disseminate the developed tools and products to the regional and international scientific and end-user community through the setting of a web platform, the organization of dissemination events, the participation to conferences. |
| FFSAR – Coastal Fully Focused SAR Altimetry and Innovative River Level Gauges for Coastal Monitoring | Fully Focused (FF) SAR Coastal [FFSAR-Coastal] is a project funded by ESA to apply the Fully Focused SAR altimetry processor on Sentinel-3 data and evaluate its potential to make a significant new contribution to coastal and estuarine monitoring [...] | SATELLITE OCEANOGRAPHIC CONSULTANTS LTD. (GB) | Science | altimeter, coastal zone, ocean science cluster, oceans, rivers, science, Sentinel-3, Sentinel-6, surface water | Fully Focused (FF) SAR Coastal [FFSAR-Coastal] is a project funded by ESA to apply the Fully Focused SAR altimetry processor on Sentinel-3 data and evaluate its potential to make a significant new contribution to coastal and estuarine monitoring systems, when coupled with innovative water level gauges for validation. Two different environments have been considered: The Severn Estuary and river: A highly dynamic mixed tidal estuary environment, the confluence between a river and its estuary experiencing large tidal range and strong tidal currents The lower Rhône Delta and Camargue: A low lying, flat river delta and wetland environment, susceptible to inundation and water level rise. Innovative in-situ water level gauges were used to validate the satellite data. Time series were provided by autonomous Vortex.io gauges (“microstations”) placed at fixed locations, gauges mounted on drones were used to provide water level profiles between the fixed locations and satellite tracks. FFSAR-Coastal investigated the potential applicability and benefits offered by FF SAR altimeter data in these two different environments. Analysis focused on the benefits offered by the very high along-track resolution in water level and backscatter that can be provided through Fully Focused SAR processing. User agencies and groups from the two regions were consulted to identify gaps and priorities for monitoring requirements. The Fully Focused SAR altimeter data, Vortex.io microstation data, and drone campaign data, are all available through a special page on the UK Coastal Monitoring Website. Further information and all project reports are available through the project website. |
| HydroCoastal: coastal ocean and inland water altimetry | HYDROCOASTAL was a project aimed at maximising the exploitation of SAR and SARIn altimeter measurements in the coastal zone and inland waters, by evaluating and implementing new approaches to process data from CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3. Optical [...] | SATELLITE OCEANOGRAPHIC CONSULTANTS LTD. (GB) | Science | altimeter, bathymetry and seafloor topography, coastal zone, CryoSat, ocean science cluster, oceans, OLCI, rivers, science, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3, SLSTR, surface water, tides, water cycle and hydrology | HYDROCOASTAL was a project aimed at maximising the exploitation of SAR and SARIn altimeter measurements in the coastal zone and inland waters, by evaluating and implementing new approaches to process data from CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3. Optical data from Sentinel-2 MSI and Sentinel-3 OLCI instruments will also be used in generating River Discharge products. New SAR and SARIn processing algorithms for the coastal zone and inland waters were developed, implemented and evaluated through an initial Test Data Set for selected regions. From the results of this evaluation a processing scheme was implemented to generate global coastal zone and river discharge data sets. Case studies assessed these products in terms of their scientific impacts. All the produced data sets are available on request to external researchers, and full descriptions of the processing algorithms will be provided. What are the specific science and technical focuses? The scientific objectives of HYDROCOASTAL were to enhance our understanding of interactions between inland water and coastal zone, between coastal zone and open ocean, and small-scale processes that govern these interactions. Also the project aimed to improve our capability to characterize the variation at different time scales of inland water storage, exchanges with the ocean and the impact on regional sea level changes. The technical objectives were to develop and evaluate new SAR and SARIn altimetry processing techniques in support of the scientific objectives, including stack processing, filtering and retracking. Also an improved Wet Troposphere Correction was developed and evaluated. Associated user needs, applications, and issues The potential benefits of global data sets were investigated through a series of impact assessment case studies in the second year of the project. Case studies considered different estuaries and coastal regions including the Bristol Channel (UK), the German Bight and South-Western Baltic Sea, the Northern Adriatic, and the Ebro River and Delta. They each exhibit specific features, but common across the locations are flooding and erosion, sedimentation, the importance of accurate high resolution local modelling, the vulnerability of coastal habitats, the connection between river discharge and coastal sea levels. Inland Water Case Studies considered selected river systems in China to investigate the potential to develop operational hydrological forecasting, lakes and rivers in Ireland to investigate the impacts of lake size and riverbank configuration on the accuracy of water level retrievals, the river Po in Italy to validate water level time series and discharge estimates, and also the River Rhine and Lake Constance to validate water level time series. Who are the End Users that have been or will be engaged? The project team includes key experts in the use of satellite data in coastal zone and inland water studies. External end-users are encouraged to access the data products to evaluate and implement them in their own applications. Solutions, outputs and products Publicly available outputs and products include: Detailed technical descriptions of the algorithms and processing schemes applied. Initial validation coastal zone and inland water Test Data Sets for selected regions, An improved Wet Troposphere Correction for the coastal zone and inland waters A final global coastal zone product, and a river discharge product for large and medium sized rivers. An impacts assessment report on the applications and benefits of these global products Educational and outreach material A final scientific roadmap provides recommendations for further development of processing algorithms, for further SAR and SARin altimeter missions, and priorities for further scientific research in the coastal zone and inland waters. Dependencies As well as altimeter data from Sentinel-3A and -3B, and from CryoSat, HYDROCOASTAL has used data from Sentinel-1 (river mask, coastline), Sentinel-2 (MSI) and Sentinel-3 (OLCI, SLSTR). What and where are the gaps in existing capability? Previous projects and initiatives, most recently the ESA SCOOP (http://www.satoc.eu/projects/SCOOP) and SHAPE projects (http://projects.alongtrack.com/shape) have worked separately to develop and implement improved processing schemes for inland water and coastal domains, but HYDROCOASTAL is the first project aiming to consider them together in synergy. The junction between the Coastal Zone and Inland Water provides a challenge to researchers as it represents a boundary between different science domains (hydrology and oceanography), and different satellite measurement regimes. It is also a region of high variability in small spatial and temporal scales, pushing to the limit the ability of satellite data in terms of sampling and providing accurate measurements. Tools, Services, Software, or Portals needed Websites and tools that will be used by HYDROCOASTAL include: Data and satellite information resources ESA Sentinels online: http://sentinel.esa.int Copernicus: http://www.copernicus.eu Cryosat Missions and Products: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/missions/esa-operational-eo-missions/cryosat Inland Water data and information sites ESA River and Lake website: http://earth.esa.int/riverandlake/ HYDROWEB: http://www.legos.obs-mip.fr/fr/soa/hydrologie/hydroweb/ USDA Lake DB web site: http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/global_reservoir/ TUM Database for Hydrological Time Series of Inland Waters (DAHITI): http://dahiti.dgfi.tum.de/en/ Related Project Websites SAMOSA: http://www.satoc.eu/projects/samosa/ CP4O: http://www.satoc.eu/projects/CP4O/ SCOOP: http://www.satoc.eu/projects/SCOOP/ CRUCIAL: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/crucial/ SHAPE: http://projects.alongtrack.com/shape/ RIDESAT: http://hydrology.irpi.cnr.it/projects/ridesat/ Other resources: ESA online SAR and SARIn altimetry Processing (registration needed): https://gpod.eo.esa.int Coastal Altimetry web site (for papers and presentations): http://www.coastalaltimetry.org OSTST web site (for papers and presentations): https://meetings.aviso.altimetry.fr What specific technical Tasks need to be done? There are four tasks to the project:- Scientific Review and Requirements Consolidation: Review the current state of the art in SAR and SARin altimeter data processing as applied to the coastal zone and to inland waters. Implementation and Validation: New processing algorithms were designed and implemented to generate Test Data Sets, which were then validated against models, in situ data and other satellite data sets. Selected algorithms were then used to generate global coastal zone and river discharge data sets. Impacts Assessment: The impact of these global products was assessed in a series of Case Studies. Outreach and Roadmap: Outreach material have been prepared and distributed to engage with the wider scientific community and provide recommendations for development of future missions and future research. Data sets Three data sets are available: HYDROCOASTAL Final Product: L2 along-track re-tracked product L3 inland water level time series L4 river discharge time series. HYDROCOASTAL Test Data Set: L2 along-track re-tracked product. HYDROCOASTAL CCN2 isardSAT coastal product. A readme file provides a more detailed description of these products, and a Product Specification Document describes the product contents and format |
| HyperBOOST | In situ bio-optical datasets are essential for the assessment of the uncertainties of satellite ocean colour measurements and derived products. This is especially critical in coastal waters (between 200m and 5km distance from the coastline), [...] | Plymouth Marine Laboratory (GB) | Science | biodiversity flagship, biodiversity science cluster, coastal processes, coastal zone, Ecosystems, marine environment, ocean health flagship, ocean science cluster, oceans, science | In situ bio-optical datasets are essential for the assessment of the uncertainties of satellite ocean colour measurements and derived products. This is especially critical in coastal waters (between 200m and 5km distance from the coastline), where land adjacency effects, complex atmospheric aerosol mixtures, high loads of optically active components in particular high concentration of chromophoric dissolved organic matter, and bottom reflectance effects contaminate the signal that reaches the satellite. Yet, extensive campaigns with unified sample collection and analysis protocols covering a wide range of optical and environmental conditions are rare in the literature. The Tara expedition (https://fondationtaraocean.org/en/home/) within the frame of the Traversing European Coastlines project (https://www.embl.org/about/info/trec/expedition/), offers in 2023-2024 the unique opportunity of an oceanographic survey from a unique platform, using the same set of protocols, instruments, and sample analysis, collocated with a rich biological dataset describing the microbiologic diversity in detail. This integrated profiling across environmental and man-made gradients of micro- and macroscopic life will enable the collection of a first of the kind, pan-European census of European coastal ecosystems. The Hyperspectral Bio-Optical Observations Sailing on Tara (HyperBOOST) project aims to extend the variables collected during the TREC integrated sampling by including bio-optical measurements relevant to present and future satellite ocean colour missions. The aims of this project are to: Provide validation data (in-situ hyperspectral radiometry, bio-optical, optically active components biogeochemical and biodiversity relevant data) in optically complex waters for several missions/products: S2, S3, Landsat8/9, PRISMA, ENMAP, PACE (stations during 2024) Provide a hyperspectral bio-optical characterization of European regional seas with a consistent set of instruments/measurement protocols Validate satellite products from different sources Preparation activities for ESA CHIME in coastal waters |
| MOHeaCAN: Monitoring Ocean Heat Content and Earth Energy ImbalANce from Space | Since the industrial era, anthropogenic emissions of Greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere have lowered the total amount of infrared energy radiated by the Earth towards space. Now the Earth is emitting less energy towards space than it [...] | MAGELLIUM (FR) | Science | altimeter, climate, GRACE, ocean health flagship, ocean heat budget, ocean science cluster, oceans, permanently open call, science | Since the industrial era, anthropogenic emissions of Greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere have lowered the total amount of infrared energy radiated by the Earth towards space. Now the Earth is emitting less energy towards space than it receives radiative energy from the sun. As a consequence there is an Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) at the top of the atmosphere. Because of this EEI, the climate system stores energy, essentially in the form of heat. This excess of energy perturbs the global water-energy cycle and generates the so-called “climate changes”. The excess of energy warms the ocean, leading to sea level rise and sea ice melt. It melts land ice, leading to sea level rise. It makes land surface temperature rise, changing the hydrological cycle and generating droughts and floods. It is essential to estimate and analyse the EEI if we want to understand the Earth’s changing climate. Measuring the EEI is challenging because it is a globally integrated variable whose variations are small (smaller than 1 W.m-2) compared to the amount of energy entering and leaving the climate system (~340 W.m-2). Recent studies suggest that the EEI response to anthropogenic GHG and aerosols emissions is 0.5-1 W.m-2. An accuracy of <0.1 W.m-2 at decadal time scales is desirable if we want to monitor future changes in EEI associated with anthropogenic forcing, which shall be a noncontroversial science based information used by the GHG mitigation policies. To date, the most accurate approach to estimate EEI consists of making the inventory of the energy stored in different climate system reservoirs (atmosphere, land, cryosphere and ocean) and estimating their changes with time. At large scale, variations in internal and latent heat energy dominate largely over the variations in other forms of energy (potential energy and kinetic energy). The ocean concentrates the vast majority of the excess of energy (~93%) associated with EEI. For this reason the global Ocean Heat Content (OHC) places a strong constraint on the EEI estimate. Thus it is crucial to characterise the uncertainty in EEI and OHC to strengthen the robustness of this estimation. Four methods exist to estimate the OHC: The direct measurement of in situ temperature based on temperature/Salinity profiles (e.g., Argo floats). The estimate from ocean reanalyses that assimilate observations from both satellite and in situ instruments. The measurement of the net ocean surface heat fluxes from space. The measurement of the thermal expansion of the ocean from space based on differences between the total sea-level content derived from altimetry measurements and the mass content derived from GRACE data (noted “Altimetry-GRACE”). To date, the best results are given by the first method mainly based on Argo network. However, one of the limitations of the method is the poor sampling of the deep ocean (>2000 m depth) and marginal seas as well as the ocean below sea ice. Re-analysis provides a more complete estimation but large biases in the polar oceans and spurious drifts in the deep ocean due to the too-short spin up simulations and inaccurate initial conditions of the reanalysis, mask a significant part of the OHC signal related to EEI. The method based on estimation of ocean net heat fluxes from space is not appropriate for OHC calculation due to a too strong uncertainty (±15 W.m-2) for the science objective on EEI. The last option based on the “Altimetry-GRACE” approach is promising because it provides consistent spatial and temporal sampling of the ocean, it samples nearly the entire global oceans, except for polar regions, and it provides estimates of the OHC over the ocean’s entire depth. To date the uncertainty in OHC from this method is ±0.47 W.m-2, which is greater than what is needed (<0.3 W.m-2) to pin down the global mean value of EEI. This activity focuses on the “Altimetry-GRACE” approach to estimate the EEI. The objectives are twofold: To improve global OHC estimation from space and its associated uncertainty by developing novel algorithms; To assess our estimation by performing comparison against independent estimates based on Argo and on the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant energy System (CERES) measurements at the top of the atmosphere. This innovative study will be performed in coordination with initiatives focused on climate change studies and EEI as the Global Water and Energy Exchanges project (GEWEX) and the Climate and Ocean Variability, Predictability and Change project (CLIVAR) of WCRP. “Scientific Highlights” The MOHeaCAN product contains monthly time series (between August 2002 and June 2017) of several variables, the main ones being the regional OHC (3°x3° spatial resolution grids), the global OHC and the EEI indicator. Uncertainties are provided for variables at global scale, by propagating errors from sea level measurements (altimetry) and ocean mass content (gravimetry). In order to calculate OHC at regional and global scales, a new estimate of the expansion efficiency of heat at global and regional scales has been performed based on the global ARGO network. A scientific validation of the MOHeaCAN product has also been carried out performing thorough comparisons against independent estimates based on ARGO data and on the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant energy System (CERES) measurements at the top of the atmosphere. The mean EEI derived from MOHeaCAN product is 0.84 W.m-2 over the whole period within an uncertainty of ±0.12 W.m-2 (68% confidence level – 0.20 W.m-2 at the 90% CL). This figure is in agreement (within error bars at the 90% CL) with other EEI indicators based on ARGO data (e.g. OHC-OMI from CMEMS) although the best estimate is slightly higher. Differences from annual to inter-annual scales have also been observed with ARGO and CERES data. Investigations have been conducted to improve our understanding of the benefits and limitations of each data set to measure EEI at different time scales. The MOHeaCAN product from “altimetry-gravimetry” is now available, documented and can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/a01-2020.003. Users will be mainly interested in ocean heat content time series at regional (grids) and global scales, and Earth energy imbalance time series. Feedback from interested users on this product are welcome. |
| Multiple THreats on Ocean health (MiTHO) | A healthy ocean regulates Earth’s climate and mitigates climate changes by absorbing heat and human-induced CO2 emissions. It serves also as a significant service provider supporting marine ecosystems’ integrity and resilience, and providing [...] | CNR-INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCES-ISMAR (IT) | Science | ocean health flagship, ocean science cluster, oceans | A healthy ocean regulates Earth’s climate and mitigates climate changes by absorbing heat and human-induced CO2 emissions. It serves also as a significant service provider supporting marine ecosystems’ integrity and resilience, and providing resources. Maintaining a healthy ocean is thus key for a sustainable life on Earth. With the rising of atmospheric CO2 concentration, ocean’s health is at risk. The ocean is warming, acidifying, and losing its oxygen content (i.e., ocean deoxygenation). Intensified hydrological cycle and altered ocean-atmosphere heat exchange are expected to increase magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events. Our knowledge about the co-occurrence of such extreme multistressor events, when a system is far outside the norm, is relatively limited. The impact of combined extreme events is expected to be very high given the reduced time for biological adaptation, potentially leading to dramatic losses of biodiversity, increased desertification and shifts in species composition and propagating up to higher trophic levels to fish stocks with severe consequences on blue economy sectors (fishing, aquaculture). However, an integrated view of how these combined extreme events in the ocean unfold in time and space and a mechanistic understanding of the relevant processes is missing. The MultIple THreats on Ocean health (MiTHo) project aims at developing innovative EO-based multistressor cumulative hazard indexes, by exploiting the latest EO-based products achieved within the ESA Ocean Science cluster projects – CAREHeat, BOOMs, BiCOME, OceanSODA, MAXSS, Sargassum, SOON, EO4SiBS, PHYSIOGLOB – combining multi-mission independent EO-based datasets, for the detection of extreme events in warming, ocean pH, winds and river inputs, and up to in-situ (BGCArgo) and modelled O2 data for hypoxia an ocean deoxygenation detection. This project will assess the cumulative impact of multiple climate and anthropogenic stressors on key ecosystem services -biodiversity, phytoplankton biomass, macroalgae biomass, zooplankton biomass, fish biomass, food provisioning and costal protection, spanning at different temporal scales, and advance our ability to understand, monitor and predict oceans’ health. Blending EO remote sensing data with in-situ measurements and numerical model outputs, through ML techniques MiTHo will reconstruct dissolved O2 vertical profiles and provide novel EO-based avenues to monitor deoxygenation and from space. |
| Ocean CIRculation from ocean COLour observations (CIRCOL) | The monitoring of the oceanic surface currents is a major scientific and socio-economic challenge. Ocean currents represent one of the fundamental elements that modulate natural and anthropogenic processes at several different space and time [...] | CNR – INSTITUTE FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSING OF THE ENVIRONMENT (IREA) (IT) | Science | climate, ocean science cluster, oceans, permanently open call, science | The monitoring of the oceanic surface currents is a major scientific and socio-economic challenge. Ocean currents represent one of the fundamental elements that modulate natural and anthropogenic processes at several different space and time scales, from global climate change to local dispersal of tracers and pollutants, with relevant impacts on marine ecosystem services and maritime activities (e.g. optimization of the ship routes, maritime safety, coastal protection). An appropriate monitoring of the oceanic currents must rely on high frequency and high resolution observations of the global ocean, which are achieved using satellite measurements. At present, no satellite sensor is able to provide a direct measurement of the ocean currents – The indirect and synoptic retrieval of the large-scale geostrophic component of the sea-surface motion is given by satellite altimetry at a spatial (~100km) and temporal (~one week) resolution which is not sufficient for many applications, even more in semi-enclosed basins as the Mediterranean Sea where the most energetic variable signals are found at relatively small scales. In this context, the objective of the CIRCOL (Ocean Circulation from Ocean Colour Observations) project is to improve the retrieval of altimeter-derived currents in the Mediterranean Basin combining the largescale, altimeter-derived geostrophic currents with the high-resolution dynamical information contained in sequences of satellite-derived surface Chlorophyll (Chl) observations. The project will be implemented in two phases. During Phase 1, an Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) based on CMEMS (Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service) physical and biogeochemical models will be implemented to investigate the potentialities of the proposed approach for the improvement of the altimeter derived currents. During Phase 2, the optimal Chl-based reconstruction of the sea-surface currents will be implemented using the satellite-derived multi-sensor, L4 (gap-free) altimeter and sea-surface Chl for the Mediterranean Sea distributed by CMEMS. The resulting products will be validated against in-situ velocity measurements (drifting buoys, HF radar). |
| OVALIE: Oceanic intrinsic Variability versus Atmospheric forced variabiLIty of sea level changE | Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by William Llovel and Alice Carret.
Global mean sea level rise is one of the most direct consequences of actual global warming. Since the beginning of the 20th century, global mean sea [...] |
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (CNRS) (FR) | Science | living planet fellowship, ocean science cluster, oceans, science | Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by William Llovel and Alice Carret. Global mean sea level rise is one of the most direct consequences of actual global warming. Since the beginning of the 20th century, global mean sea level experiences an unabated increase of 1.1-1.9 mm.yr-1 recorded by tide gauges. Based on satellite altimetry and since 1993, global mean sea level rises at a higher rate of 3 mm.yr-1. This higher rate denotes a possible acceleration in this global rise. Actual global mean sea level rise mainly reflects global ocean warming (through thermal expansion of sea water) and land ice melt (from Greenland, Antarctica and mountain glaciers). Monitoring precisely these climate variables is mandatory to better understand processes at work under current global warming and to validate climate models used for projections. Careful investigations of these observations jointly with state-of-the-art numerical simulations have also helped for interpreting these changes and underlying mechanisms. Some of these joint observational/numerical investigations have demonstrated that the evolution of the ocean in the turbulent regions has a stochastic character even over interannual to multidecadal periods. This stochastic character of the ocean is known as intrinsic variability. This latter is poorly known in the global ocean despite its recently acknowledged contribution to the oceanic variability. Thus, this intrinsic variability may bias our interpretation of low-frequency variability of the ocean. One barely knows the temporal and spatial signature of the intrinsic variability, the precise footprints of this intrinsic variability as a function of depth and its signature on observations. Furthermore, we do not have enough knowledge on how this intrinsic variability contributes to the recent regional sea level change and its contributions such as temperature, salinity and mass changes. Therefore, the atmospheric evolution may force a variety of long-term oceanic variability. This means that the most accurate satellite/in situ observations can describe the atmospheric forced variability along with the chaotic ocean intrinsic changes. The OVALIE project proposes to scientifically investigate and partition the respective contribution of the atmospheric forced variability versus the oceanic intrinsic variability for the sea level observations (satellite data -based on Topex/Poseidon, Jason 1-2-3, ERS1, ERS2, ENVISAT, Altika and GRACE- and in situ measurements –based on Argo floats and other in situ measurements). |
| PHYSIOGLOB: Assessing the inter-annual physiological response of phytoplankton to global warming using long-term satellite observations | Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by Marco Bellacicco.
Phytoplankton is considered to be responsible for approximately 50% of the planetary primary production and is at the basis of the trophic chain. Large scale factors [...] |
ITALIAN NATIONAL AGENCY FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES, ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (ENEA) (IT) | Science | carbon cycle, carbon science cluster, climate, living planet fellowship, ocean science cluster, oceans, science | Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by Marco Bellacicco. Phytoplankton is considered to be responsible for approximately 50% of the planetary primary production and is at the basis of the trophic chain. Large scale factors such as climate, ocean circulation, and mostly anthropogenic activities, affect phytoplankton biomass and distribution. For all of these reasons, in the ocean, phytoplankton is defined as a sort of sentinel of changes in the ecosystem, because they rapidly respond to environment perturbations. Light, nutrients and temperature are the most important environmental variables that influence phytoplankton production. Phytoplankton cells respond to changes in light and nutrients with physiological strategies that enhance the efficiency of light capturing, photosynthetic capacity, growth and persistence. There are two different kinds of phytoplankton responses to light: photoadaptation and photoacclimation. The photoadaptation describes changes that might happen at genotype level, and are expected to occur at a long evolutionary time-scale. The photoacclimation is a cellular process that allows phytoplankton to change the intracellular chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl) in relation to environmental factors and it includes, among the others, regulation of the pigment amount and other components of the photosynthetic machinery. The temperature is the other main environmental agent that affects phytoplankton. It has been proved that ocean warming, mostly due to anthropogenic activities, causes an expansion of the low-Chl and low-productivity areas impacting strongly on marine ecosystem. The most important and easily observable mechanism due to photoacclimation is variation of the photosynthetic pigment concentration (i.e. Chl) at the cellular scale which is thus can be observed and quantified using space-borne observations. Photoacclimation can be described in terms of variation of the ratio between chlorophyll-a and carbon (Chl:C ratio). Unfortunately, this process is currently overlooked by standard operational ocean colour algorithms used to retrieve information about both the phytoplankton standing stock and production. PhysioGlob wants to study the inter-annual physiological response of phytoplankton to global warming using long-term satellite observations (i.e. entire ESA OC-CCI time-series) through the Chl:C ratio. Phytoplankton carbon could be estimated from the particle backscattering (bbp, λ). One of the most used and applied algorithm for bbp (λ) is the Quasi Analytical Algorithm (QAA). We want to re-evaluate retrieval of bbp (λ) over the global ocean with the QAA, using field data of remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs) and inherent optical properties (IOP), and then compare phytoplankton carbon with Chl to estimate the physiological signal. In order to study the trend and oscillation of this process we: i) study the single time series in separate M-SSA analyses to evaluate similarities among the inter-annual variabilities of the Chl:Cphyto ratio, SST, and phytoplankton indices also highlighting possible differences; ii) proceed with a joint M-SSA analysis of the time series to better understand the spatio-temporal structure associated with inter-annual variability in the Chl:Cphyto ratio or phytoplankton indices and global ocean temperature field. This coupled analysis will also help in addressing the question to which extent the inter-annual oscillatory modes found in the Chl:Cphyto ratio or phytoplankton indices can be attributed to its response to inter-annual variability in SST field. |
| Satellite Oceanographic Datasets for Acidification (OceanSODA) | Since the beginning of the industrial revolution humans have released approximately 500 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, cement production and land-use changes. About 30% of this carbon dioxide (CO2) [...] | UNIVERSITY OF EXETER (GB) | Science | carbon cycle, carbon science cluster, climate, ocean science cluster, oceans, science, SMOS, SST | Since the beginning of the industrial revolution humans have released approximately 500 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, cement production and land-use changes. About 30% of this carbon dioxide (CO2) has been taken up by the oceans, largely by the dissolution of this CO2 into seawater and subsequent reactions with the dissolved carbonate ions present in seawater. Anthropogenic emissions CO2 levelled out in 2016, but have since begun to increase again, rendering absolutely critical to monitor ocean carbon uptake. The long-term uptake of carbon dioxide by the oceans is reducing the ocean pH, a process commonly known as ocean acidification. The uptake is also altering the ocean chemistry and ecology, impacting marine ecosystems on which we rely. Recent work has begun to investigate the use of satellite Earth Observation, especially focusing on satellite sea surface salinity and sea surface temperature data, exploiting empirical methods to monitor surface-ocean carbonate chemistry. These techniques complement in situ approaches by enabling the first synoptic-scale observation-based assessments of the global oceans and are particularly well suited to monitoring large episodic events. The Satellite Oceanographic Datasets for Acidification (OceanSODA) project will further develop the use of satellite Earth Observation for studying and monitoring marine carbonate chemistry. Besides further developments of algorithms linking satellite variables with marine carbonate system parameters and the associated validation, a distinct focus will be on selected scientific studies and downstream impact assessment. This will include characterising and analysing how upwelling (of low pH waters) and compound events impact the carbonate system, and characterising the flow and impact on marine ecosystems of low pH waters from large river systems. The project will also work closely with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and The Ocean Foundation, to support their work on coral reef conservation, the designation of marine protected areas and investigation of wild fisheries health and sustainable management. |
| SCOPE | The ocean plays a central role in modulating the Earth’s carbon cycle. Monitoring how the ocean carbon cycle is changing is fundamental to managing climate change. Satellite remote sensing is currently our best tool for viewing the ocean surface [...] | Plymouth Marine Laboratory (GB) | Science | carbon cycle, carbon science cluster, ocean science cluster, oceans, science | The ocean plays a central role in modulating the Earth’s carbon cycle. Monitoring how the ocean carbon cycle is changing is fundamental to managing climate change. Satellite remote sensing is currently our best tool for viewing the ocean surface globally and systematically, at high spatial and temporal resolutions, and the past few decades have seen an exponential growth in studies utilising satellite data for ocean carbon research. Satellite-based observations have to be combined with in situ observations and models, to obtain a comprehensive view of ocean carbon pools and fluxes. The Satellite-based observations of Carbon in the Ocean: Pools, fluxes and Exchanges (SCOPE) project aims to provide the best possible characterisation of the ocean carbon budget from satellite observations and further the understanding of its variability in space and time. It will produce satellite-based products and uncertainties of the pools (phytoplankton carbon, particulate organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, particulate inorganic carbon and dissolved inorganic carbon) and fluxes (primary production, export production, air-sea exchange and land-sea exchange) of the ocean carbon cycle using the 25-year time series of Ocean-Colour Climate Change Initiative. These products, together with existing in situ measurements and models, will contribute to the goals of ESA’s Ocean Science Cluster: Contribute to the development of next-generation ocean satellite products and observation systems. Enhance the understanding of the ocean’s role in the Earth’s climate system. Foster the transition from science to actionable solutions for society. We will accomplish these objectives by undertaking the following activities: Design and implement a novel research plan that will consolidate and advance the current understanding of the ocean carbon cycle. Deliver a consistent EO dataset of all ocean carbon pools and fluxes that is harmonised in space and time. Quantify uncertainties for each individual component of the ocean carbon cycle and in the carbon budget when multiple products are considered in relation to one another. Describe the global carbon budget from space, with its uncertainties, at climatological and annual time scales using an integrated approach in which in situ observations, data assimilation, modelling and machine learning will be used to constrain the budget as well as extrapolating surface observations from depth. Advance our understanding of drivers of change in the ocean carbon budget in space and time, based on a scientific analysis using the developed products and their uncertainties. Assess how satellite-based ocean carbon products can inform modellers in close collaboration with the modelling community, to help reduce the discrepancies between models and observations. Develop a scientific roadmap which will pose the main scientific challenges and observations gaps that need to be addressed over the period of 2025-2030 to move towards an integrated monitoring approach of the ocean carbon cycle. |
| SENTINEL-3 TANDEM FOR CLIMATE (S3TC) | After 2 years in orbit, the Sentinel-3A satellite from the Copernicus program was joined by Sentinel-3B. During the first six months of the mission, the two satellites will fly in close formation. Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B observe the same [...] | ACRI-ST S.A.S. (FR) | Science | climate, ocean science cluster, science, Sentinel-3 | After 2 years in orbit, the Sentinel-3A satellite from the Copernicus program was joined by Sentinel-3B. During the first six months of the mission, the two satellites will fly in close formation. Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B observe the same place on the Earth within 30 seconds. This so-called tandem phase makes it possible to inter-calibrate very accurately the two satellites in order to ensure that their measurements are consistent. In the long run, this will help to build reliable measurement records to study climate change effects such as sea level rise, increase of ocean surface temperature, or variations in the phyto-plankton distribution. The Sentinel-3 Tandem for Climate is an ESA-financed study which aims at a detailed understanding of the inter-satellite discrepancies, differences and uncertainties using data acquired during the Tandem phase. The study is performed by a consortium of companies and research institutes led by ACRI-ST. |
| SENTINEL-5P+ INNOVATION OCEAN COLOUR (S5P+-I-OC) | The S5P+I-OC project will explore the capacity of the Sentinel-5p TROPOMI data to provide novel Ocean Colour (OC) products. More specifically, the objectives of this S5P+ Innovation activity are to:
develop a solid scientific basis for the [...] |
ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE (DE) | Science | atmosphere science cluster, carbon cycle, carbon science cluster, ocean science cluster, oceans, science, Sentinel-3, Sentinel-5P, Sentinel-5P+ Innovation, TROPOMI | The S5P+I-OC project will explore the capacity of the Sentinel-5p TROPOMI data to provide novel Ocean Colour (OC) products. More specifically, the objectives of this S5P+ Innovation activity are to: develop a solid scientific basis for the application of S5P data within the context of novel scientific and operational OC products applications; assess existing algorithms which have been used for OC product retrievals from SCanning Imaging Absorption Spectro-Meter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-2); develop novel OC products and retrieval methods that exploit the potential of the S5P mission’s capabilities beyond its primary objectives, in particular, the chlorophyll-a concentration (CHL) of important phytoplankton groups (PFT-CHL), the underwater light attenuation coefficients (Kd) for the ultraviolet (UV) and the blue spectral region separately (KdUV, KdBlue), and the sun-induced marine chlorophyll-a fluorescence signal (SIF-marine) from TROPOMI S5P level-1 data; explore the potential of the UV range of S5P for ocean biology; use complementary products from Sentinel-3 (S3) and S5P for exploring the UV measurements of TROPOMI for assessing sources of coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and the amount of UV-absorbing pigments in the ocean; validate with established reference in situ datasets and perform intercomparison to other satellite OC data; define strategic actions for fostering a transition of the methods from research to operational activities; maximize the scientific return and benefits from the S5P mission for surface ocean research and services (e.g. CMEMS) by assessing the synergies with other satellite sensors, in particular explore the synergistic use of S5P and S3. |
| SMOWS: Satellite Mode Waters Salinity, in synergy with Temperature and Sea Level | Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by Audrey Hasson.
Mode waters (MWs) transport a large volume of heat, carbon and other properties across basins at seasonal to longer time-scales and thus play a major role in the [...] |
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (CNRS) (FR) | Science | living planet fellowship, ocean science cluster, oceans, science | Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by Audrey Hasson. Mode waters (MWs) transport a large volume of heat, carbon and other properties across basins at seasonal to longer time-scales and thus play a major role in the modulation of the Earth climate. In the context of anthropogenic global warming, unlocking the understanding of the MWs transport and characteristics is critical. MWs in the South Pacific Ocean are of particular interest because of their likely interaction with the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Variations in the MWs, their relation with the observed long-term changes and possible implication for ENSO remain unknown. This proposal offers to investigate the MWs characteristics in surface salinity (SSS), temperature (SST) and sea level (SL), which are all Essential Climate Variables (ECV) emphasized by three European Climate Change Initiatives (CCIs). Their link with interannual to longer time scale variability of the Pacific Ocean also need further examination. MWs are subducted from the subtropical and sub-Antarctic Pacific mixed layers and subsequently flow equatorward at the subsurface or intermediate depth. They export the characteristics acquired at the surface into the subtropical gyre and the equatorial region. Surface observations can in consequence give us insight of the future characteristics found at depth at lower latitudes. According to IPCC (2013), it is likely that both the subduction of SSS anomalies and the movement of density surfaces due to warming have contributed to the observed changes in subsurface salinity. We will investigate properties of the formation areas and associated variations that will drive the volume and characteristics of the MWs. As MWs shoal, they modify the equatorial mixed layer characteristics, and could affect ENSO events. Studies indeed have shown that western equatorial Pacific SST and SSS modulate ENSO through vertical stratification. We will therefore to characterize the mean MWs pathways, properties and associated variations. In conclusion, the South Pacific Ocean is at the forefront of interannual variability to long-term modifications associated with climate change. It is therefore essential to study the observed SSS changes as they impact ENSO and SL variations. Satellite observations associated with in situ and modelling would ultimately enable us to unlock our understanding of the role of MWs SSS signature on interannual to longer timescale variability of the South Pacific Ocean. |
| Swarm for Ocean Dynamics | Satellite magnetic field observations have the potential to provide information on dynamics, heat content and salinity throughout the ocean. It is well established that the ocean generates a time-varying magnetic field that depends on its [...] | Technical University of Denmark (DK) | Science | ionosphere and magnetosphere, Ocean Circulation, Ocean Indicators, ocean science cluster, oceans, swarm | Satellite magnetic field observations have the potential to provide information on dynamics, heat content and salinity throughout the ocean. It is well established that the ocean generates a time-varying magnetic field that depends on its motions and electrical conductivity structure. With ten years of high quality observations available from the Swarm satellite trio, and with recent advances in geomagnetic field modelling and data processing strategies, there are now new possibilities for extracting this signal of interest. The Swarm for Ocean dynamics project aims to retrieve the Ocean-Induced Magnetic Field (OIMF) signal, going beyond previously identified tidal signals, and to interpret it with the help of advanced numerical simulations using the latest oceanographic information. The project involves (i) a dedicated scheme for processing Swarm satellite data including corrections for known signals of magnetospheric and ionospheric origin, (ii) high resolution global modelling of the time-dependent internal field at Earth’s surface (iii) spatio-temporal filtering to isolate the time-varying OIMF signal, and (iv) analysis of high resolution numerical simulations based on 4D oceanic flows and conductivities. |
| The Marine Atmosphere eXtreme Satellite Synergy – MAXSS | The general objectives of this activity is to foster the scientific exploitation of EO-based products to improve the observation, understanding and prediction of extreme wind events and their interaction with the ocean and the earth system. In [...] | IFREMER (FR) | Science | ocean science cluster, oceans, science, SMOS | The general objectives of this activity is to foster the scientific exploitation of EO-based products to improve the observation, understanding and prediction of extreme wind events and their interaction with the ocean and the earth system. In particular, the required activities include (1) the development, implementation and validation of new methods allowing to fully exploit and optimally combine the wind information obtained in extreme wind conditions (>35 m/s) from different spaceborne sensors, mainly SMOS and S-1 but also other mission data (e.g., Radarsat-2, AMSR-2, Aquarius, SMAP, CYGNSS, radar altimeters…) in order to build a long time series (at least 10 years) of global multi-mission synergy wind products in high to extreme wind conditions (>35 m/s), (2) the production of an atlas of extreme wind events collocated with measurements of the underlying ocean environment as measured from satellite sensors (Sea Surface Height, Sea Surface Temperature, Ocean Colour, Sea Surface Salinity, Wave height) or from auxiliary datasets from in-situ and/or models (ex. Mixed Layer Depth), (3) the exploitation of this reference database to foster new scientific results on how extreme wind events impact the ocean in term of ocean physics, ocean biology and air-sea fluxes, including feedback processes, and how this impacts major Earth System cycles from synoptic to interannual and decadal time scales and (4) the exploitation of this reference database to support the operational user community. |
| World Ocean Circulation | The objectives of this activity are to (i) develop and validate innovative methodologies allowing to optimize the synergetic capacity offered by satellite data, in situ measurements and numerical models for improving the retrieval of upper-layer [...] | OCEANDATALAB (FR) | Applications | ocean health flagship, ocean science cluster, oceans, platforms, science, sea surface topography, sustainable development | The objectives of this activity are to (i) develop and validate innovative methodologies allowing to optimize the synergetic capacity offered by satellite data, in situ measurements and numerical models for improving the retrieval of upper-layer ocean circulation products over FOUR high-priority pilot areas chosen as to represent at best the diversity of the world ocean circulation regimes, i.e. one polar sea area, one western boundary current, one upwelling region, one coastal area, and ii) in line with the objectives of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, demonstrate the unique capacity of the innovative products to support effective actions aiming at procuring a clean, safe, sustainably harvested and productive ocean by targeting FOUR high priority pilot applications, i.e. Pollution Monitoring, Safe Navigation, Sustainable Fisheries and Renewable Marine Energies. In order to answer the project’s objectives, the consortium will investigate the four following themes: Theme 1: Sea-state current interactions for Safe Navigation Theme 2: 3D currents and vertical motion for Sustainable Fisheries Theme 3: Surface Lagrangian drift for a Clean Ocean Theme 4: HR wave and current model assessment for a Productive Ocean For each theme, a minimum of two users have been engaged. Their role during the project is twofold. First, they will provide support to the consortium for the user requirement consolidation both in terms of products needed and ocean processes of utmost importance for their applications. Second, it is expected that feedback on usefulness and impact of the WOC products will be obtained through the impact studies performed by the users. In addition to the development of innovative methods and products targeting direct answers to the user needs, a series of tools will be also developed, implemented and maintained during the project. These tools should ease and maximize the WOC users’ involvement and further aim to attract potential new users. |