The Ocean Colour Satellite Observing System

The synoptic view and regular data coverage provided by satellite data make them essential to monitor marine ecosystems. Ocean colour (OC) Satellite Observing System is an essential component of operational ocean observing and forecasting systems currently developed for the global ocean and the European Seas. In the framework of this European effort, the Satellite Oceanography Group (GOS) of ISAC Rome has developed a system that produces satellite OC images and data for the Mediterranean and the Black Seas meeting the growing demand for near realtime OC products for applications in operational oceanography. The GRID based system has been developed to produce: 1) fast delivery images for environmental monitoring applications and operational support to oceanographic cruises; 2) accurate OC products for data assimilation in ecosystem models; 3) temporally consistent reanalysis products for climate change studies. The OC data processing using a specific regional algorithm developed by GOS for the Mediterranean represents an improvement with respect to the global algorithms that significantly overestimate chlorophyll concentration. Since 1999 Near Real Time and Delayed Time data are provided daily through an ad hoc automatic procedure that processes satellite data and makes higher level products available to the users within an hour of raw data acquisition from space agencies ground segments. GOS is now extending this regional algorithm to optically complex case 2 waters such as the Adriatic Sea's.