1. Simon Pinnock ESA Technical Officer

2. GlobColour: Context and Motivation
ESA Earth Observation Envelope Programme
ESA EOEP-3 Declaration: Specific Objectives...[abridged]…
advance the Earth Science agenda
respond to the challenges of global change and of anthropogenic effects on our environment,
through the development of appropriate new monitoring tools…
guarantee easy access to Earth Observation data, including higher level products, for both science
and application uses;
ensure the maximum scientific return on ESA’s investments in Earth Observation;
Data User Element (of EOEP)
Building user communities through Development and Demonstration of user-driven applications
of EO data
Exploitation of ESA Earth Observation satellites:
- ERS 1 & 2
- ENVISAT
- Earth Explorers: Cryosat-2, SMOS, GOCE, etc.
- GMES Sentinels
Drawing on research in national and European science programmes
Supporting the Earth Science agenda: GlobCarbon, GlobCover, GlobAerosol, GlobIce, GlobVolcano,
GlobColour, Medspiration, GlobWave, GlobSnow, etc.
Supporting future GMES services
- Laying the foundations of a European Service for Global Ocean Colour
Working towards the vision of routine assimilation of all available observations supporting
GMES user needs (GlobModel)

3. GlobColour: Context and Motivation
Why GlobColour?
Ocean colour is an "essential climate variable" needed to support the carbon
cycle monitoring requirements of the UNFCCC…
…to understand the role of the biological pump in mitigating CO2 emissions
…to understand ocean biology, and what will happen to it under future
changing conditions of warming, acidification, salinity, circulation, …
Encouraging full exploitation of ENVISAT MERIS and GMES Sentinel-3
ocean colour instruments.
User Consultations with IOCCG, and later IOCCP
…led to identification of a strong User Requirement to make combined use
of all available global ocean colour observations to provide the best possible
ocean colour climate data record to support global change research
Note: IOCCG recommendation on merging in Report #2 (1999).
IOCCG Data Merging Working Group meeting (May 2005)
Demonstrated the maturity of data merging methods and the feasibility of
achieving the above goal, building on research programs such as SIMBIOS.
IOCCG Data Merging Report (IOCCG #5) published 2007.
Given that the oceans contain 50 times the carbon contained in the atmosphere, it’s very important to understand what is going to happen to the oceans in a future changing climate.

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

5. GlobColour: Context and Motivation
Data User Element Working Process:
1. User consultation and formation of a User Group, who provide:
User Requirements Document
Letter of Commitment to actively participate in the project to
Confirm and clarify the User Requirements as necessary
Provide technical guidance to the project
Participate in the validation of the products and service
To assess the utility of the products and service
2. ESA issues a competitive invitation to tender for the work necessary to satisfy the
identified requirements – open to EOEP programme participants (i.e. ESA member states)
3. Projects awarded to European consortia consisting of combination of skills scientific researchers,
systems developers, etc.
4. Regular user consultation during progress of the project
Attendance at progress meetings
Endorsement of key documents
Evaluation
Phased project plan with annual contractual go/no-go milestones
Don’t pay the user

6. GlobColour: Context and Motivation
The GlobColour Project:
ESA project:
Budget = k€ 975
Kick-Off = 15 Nov 2005
Year – Development, prototyping and testing
Year – Production of data set and validation against in-situ
Year – One-year demonstration NRT service
Consortium:
ACRI-ST (F)
LOV (F)
University of Plymouth (UK)
ARGANS Ltd (UK)
Brockmann Consult (D)
NIVA (N)
ICESS (USA)
DLR (D)
User Group:
IOCCG - Ocean Colour Science Requirements
IOCCP - Ocean Carbon Science Requirements
UKMO-NCOF - Operational Application Requirements

7. Thank you!