A 3-D instrument self-shading correction has been developed for the MOBY upwelling radiance measurements. This correction was tested using the 23 year time series of MOBY measurements, at the Lanai, Hawaii site. The correction is small (less than 2%) except when the sun and collectors are aligned within 20° azimuth on opposite sides of the main MOBY structure. Estimates of the correction uncertainty were made with a Monte-Carlo method and the variation of the model input parameters at this site. The correction uncertainty was generally less than 1%, but increased to 30% of the correction in the strongest shadow region.

In the context of the Copernicus Program, EUMETSAT prioritizes the creation of an ocean color infrastructure for system vicarious calibration (OC-SVC). This work aims to reply to this need by proposing the European Radiometry Buoy and Infrastructure (EURYBIA). EURYBIA is designed as an autonomous European infrastructure operating within the Marine Optical Network (MarONet) established by University of Miami (Miami, FL, USA) based on the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) experience and NASA support. MarONet addresses SVC requirements in different sites, consistently and in a traceable way. The selected EURYBIA installation is close to the Lampedusa Island in the central Mediterranean Sea. This area is widely studied and hosts an Atmospheric and Oceanographic Observatory for long-term climate monitoring. The EURYBIA field segment comprises off-shore and on-shore infrastructures to manage the observation system and perform routine sensors calibrations. The ground segment includes the telemetry center for data communication and the processing center to compute data products and uncertainty budgets. The study shows that the overall uncertainty of EURYBIA SVC gains computed for the Sentinel-3 OLCI mission under EUMETSAT protocols is of about 0.05% in the blue-green wavelengths after a decade of measurements, similar to that of the reference site in Hawaii and in compliance with requirements for climate studies.

The upwelling radiance attenuation coefficient KLu in the upper 10m of the water column can be significantly influenced by inelastic scattering processes and thus will vary even with homogeneous water properties. The Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY), the primary vicarious calibration site for many ocean color sensors, makes measurements of the upwelling radianceLu at 1, 5, and 9m, and uses these values to determine K-Lu and to propagate the upwelling radiance directed toward the zenith, L-u, at 1 m to and through the surface. Inelastic scattering causes the KLu derived from the measurements to be an underestimate of the true KLu from 1 m to the surface at wavelengths greater than 575 nm; thus, the derived water-leaving radiance is underestimated at wavelengths longer than 575 nm. A method to correct this KLu, based on a model of the upwelling radiance including Raman scattering and chlorophyll fluorescence, has been developed that corrects this bias. The model has been experimentally validated, and this technique can be applied to the MOBY dataset to provide new, more accurate products at these wavelengths. When applied to a 4-month MOBY deployment, the corrected water-leaving radiance L-w can increase by 5% (600 nm), 10% (650 nm), and 50% (700 nm). This method will be used to provide additional and more accurate products in the MOBY dataset.

The immersion coefficient accounts for the difference in responsivity for a radiometer placed in the air versus water or another medium. In this study, the immersion coefficients for the radiance collectors on the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) were modeled and measured. The experiment showed that the immersion coefficient for the MOBY radiance collectors agreed with a simple model using only the index of refraction for water and fused silica. With the results of this experiment, we estimate that the uncertainty in the current value of the immersion coefficient used in the MOBY project is 0.05 % (k = 1).

Vicarious calibration of ocean color satellites involves the use of accurate surface measurements of water-leaving radiance to update and improve the system calibration of ocean color satellite sensors. An experiment was performed to compare a free-fall technique with the established Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) measurement. It was found in the laboratory that the radiance and irradiance instruments compared well within their estimated uncertainties for various spectral sources. The spectrally averaged differences between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) values for the sources and the instruments were <2.5% for the radiance sensors and <1.5% for the irradiance sensors. In the field, the sensors measuring the above-surface downwelling irradiance performed nearly as well as they had in the laboratory, with an average difference of <2%. While the water-leaving radiance L-w calculated from each instrument agreed in almost all cases within the combined instrument uncertainties (approximately 7%), there was a relative bias between the two instrument classes/techniques that varied spectrally. The spectrally averaged (400-600 nm) difference between the two instrument classes/techniques was 3.1%. However, the spectral variation resulted in the free-fall instruments being 0.2% lower at 450 nm and 5.9% higher at 550 nm. Based on the analysis of one matchup, the bias in L-w was similar to that observed for L-u(1 m) with both systems, indicating the difference did not come from propagating L-u(1 m) to L-w.

The Marine Optical System is a spectrograph-based sensor used on the Marine Optical Buoy for the vicarious calibration of ocean color satellite sensors. It is also deployed from ships in instruments used to develop bio-optical algorithms that relate the optical properties of the ocean to its biological content. In this work, an algorithm is applied to correct the response of the Marine Optical System for scattered, or improperly imaged, light in the system. The algorithm, based on the measured response of the system to a series of monochromatic excitation sources, reduces the effects of scattered light on the measured source by one to two orders of magnitude. Implications for the vicarious calibration of satellite ocean color sensors and the development of bio-optical algorithms are described. The algorithm is a one-dimensional point spread correction algorithm, generally applicable to nonimaging sensors, but can in principle be extended to higher dimensions for imaging systems.

The water-leaving spectral radiance is a basic ocean color remote sensing parameters required for the vicarious calibration. Determination of water-leaving spectral radiance using in-water radiometry requires measurements of the upwelling spectral radiance at several depths. The Marine Optical System (MOS) Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is a portable, fiber-coupled, high-resolution spectroradiometer system with spectral coverage from 340 nm to 960 nm. MOS was developed at the same time as the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) spectrometer system and is optically identical except that it is configured as a profiling instrument. Concerns with instrument self-shadowing because of the large exterior dimensions of the MOS underwater housing led to adapting MOS and ROV technology. This system provides for measurement of the near-surface upwelled spectral radiance while minimizing the effects of shadowing. A major advantage of this configuration is that the ROV provides the capability to acquire measurements 5 cm to 10 cm below the water surface and is capable of very accurate depth control (1 cm) allowing for high vertical resolution observations within the very near-surface. We describe the integrated system and its characterization and calibration. Initial measurements and results from observations of coral reefs in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, extremely turbid waters in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, and in Case 1 waters off Southern Oahu, Hawaii are presented.

Determination of the water-leaving spectral radiance using in-water instrumentation requires measurements of the upwelling spectral radiance (Lu) at several depths. If these measurements are separated in time, changes in the measurement conditions result in increased variance in the results. A prototype simultaneous multi-track system was developed to assess the potential reduction in the Type A uncertainty in single set, normalized water-leaving radiance achievable if the data were acquired simultaneously. The prototype system employed a spectrograph and multi-track fiber-coupled CCD-detector; in situ in-water tests were performed with the prototype system fiber-coupled to a small buoy. The experiments demonstrate the utility of multi-channel simultaneous data acquisition for in-water measurement applications. An example of the potential impact for tracking abrupt responsivity changes in satellite ocean color sensors using these types of instruments as well as for the satellite vicarious calibration is given.

For the past decade, the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY), a radiometric buoy stationed in the waters off Lanai, Hawaii, has been the primary in-water oceanic observatory for the vicarious calibration of U. S. satellite ocean color sensors, including the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometers (MODIS) instruments on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Terra and Aqua satellites. The MOBY vicarious calibration of these sensors supports international effort to develop a global, multi-year time series of consistently calibrated ocean color data products. A critical component of the MOBY program is establishing radiometric traceability to the International System of Units (SI) through standards provided by the U. S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). A detailed uncertainty budget is a core component of traceable metrology. We present the MOBY uncertainty budget for up-welling radiance and discuss additional considerations related to the water-leaving radiance uncertainty budget. Finally, we discuss approaches in new instrumentation to reduce the uncertainties in in situ water-leaving radiance measurements.

In ocean-color remote sensing, approximately 90% of the flux at the sensor originates from atmospheric scattering, with the water-leaving radiance contributing the remaining 10% of the total flux. Consequently, errors in the measured top-of-the atmosphere radiance are magnified a factor of 10 in the determination of water-leaving radiance. Proper characterization of the atmosphere is thus a critical part of the analysis of ocean-color remote sensing data. It has always been necessary to calibrate the ocean-color satellite sensor vicariously, using in situ, ground-based results, independent of the status of the pre-flight radiometric calibration or the utility of on-board calibration strategies. Because the atmosphere contributes significantly to the measured flux at the instrument sensor, both the instrument and the atmospheric correction algorithm are simultaneously calibrated vicariously. The Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY), deployed in support of the Earth Observing System (EOS) since 1996, serves as the primary calibration station for a variety of ocean-color satellite instruments, including the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Japanese Ocean Color Temperature Scanner (OCTS) , and the French Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER). MOBY is located off the coast of Lanai, Hawaii. The site was selected to simplify the application of the atmospheric correction algorithms. Vicarious calibration using MOBY data allows for a thorough comparison and merger of ocean-color data from these multiple sensors.

The Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) is the centerpiece of the primary ocean measurement site for calibration of satellite ocean color sensors based on independent in situ measurements. Since late 1996, the time series of normalized water-leaving radiances L(sub WN)(lambda) determined from the array of radiometric sensors attached to MOBY are the primary basis for the on-orbit calibrations of the USA Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), the Japanese Ocean Color and Temperature Sensor (OCTS), the French Polarization Detection Environmental Radiometer (POLDER), the German Modular Optoelectronic Scanner on the Indian Research Satellite (IRS1-MOS), and the USA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS). The MOBY vicarious calibration L(sub WN)(lambda) reference is an essential element in the international effort to develop a global, multi-year time series of consistently calibrated ocean color products using data from a wide variety of independent satellite sensors. A longstanding goal of the SeaWiFS and MODIS (Ocean) Science Teams is to determine satellite-derived L(sub WN)(labda) with a relative combined standard uncertainty of 5 %. Other satellite ocean color projects and the Sensor Intercomparison for Marine Biology and Interdisciplinary Oceanic Studies (SIMBIOS) project have also adopted this goal, at least implicitly. Because water-leaving radiance contributes at most 10 % of the total radiance measured by a satellite sensor above the atmosphere, a 5 % uncertainty in L(sub WN)(lambda) implies a 0.5 % uncertainty in the above-atmosphere radiance measurements. This level of uncertainty can only be approached using vicarious-calibration approaches as described below. In practice, this means that the satellite radiance responsivity is adjusted to achieve the best agreement, in a least-squares sense, for the L(sub WN)(lambda) results determined using the satellite and the independent optical sensors (e.g. MOBY). The end result of this approach is to implicitly absorb unquantified, but systematic, errors in the atmospheric correction, incident solar flux, and satellite sensor calibration into a single correction factor to produce consistency with the in situ data.

The Marine Optical System (MOS) is a dual charge-coupled device (CCD)-based spectrograph system developed for in-water measurements of downwelling solar irradiance E d and upwelling radiance L u .These measurements are currently used in the calibration and validation of satellite ocean color measurement instruments such as the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS).MOS was designed to be deployed from a ship for single measurements and also integrated into the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) for longer time series datasets.Measurements with the two spectrographs in the MOS systems can be compared in the spectral interval from about 580 to 630 nm.In this spectral range, they give different values for L u or E d at a common wavelength.To better understand the origin of this observation and the sources of uncertainty in the calibration of MOBY, an MOS bench unit was developed for detailed radiometric characterization and calibration measurements in a laboratory setting.In the work reported here, a novel calibration approach is described that uses a tunable-laser-based, monochromatic, spatially uniform, Lambertian, large area integrating sphere source (ISS).Results are compared with those obtained by a conventional approach using a lamp-illuminated ISS.Differences in the MOS bench unit responsivity between the two calibration approaches were observed and attributed to stray light.A simple correction algorithm was developed for the lamp-illuminated ISS that greatly improves the agreement between the two techniques.Implications for water-leaving radiance measurements by MOS are discussed.

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