ABSTRACTS

Oral Session 5 | Tuesday, October 4, 16:00–16:20 | Abstract 564

Recent measurements of marine optical properties in the Eastern Mediterranean and the potential Copernicus Ocean Colour System Vicarious Calibration (OC-SVC) site of Crete

For more than 10 years HCMR have been gathering apparent and inherent optical properties with simultaneous water samples of the euphotic zone in the Eastern Mediterranean for ocean colour satellite validation and the better understanding of the bio-optics of this oligotrophic area. This has been with an increasingly strict adherence to metrological principles and international protocols from NASA, ESA, and the IOCCG that can make these measurements fiducial and more relevant to the space agencies and ocean colour community. The European Union’s Earth observation programme Copernicus is considering the Eastern Mediterranean, specifically Crete, as a potential site for a new OC-SVC buoy and associated infrastructure. Furthermore, this area has been under-sampled for marine optical properties compared to other areas of the European Seas. We present findings from recent research cruises helping to remedy this by providing a greater number of in situ radiometric matchups with satellite overpasses, and more data on the light scattering and absorbing components of the euphotic zone through simultaneous samples and inherent optical property measurements. These include results from the PERLE-2 (2019), MARRE (2020), and JRC Optics (2022) cruises, and the ProVal (2019) and HyperNAV (2022) deployments – primarily: apparent optical properties from five in-water radiometry systems and one above-water system; absorption and attenuation; back scattering and volume scattering; particle shape; HPLC based Chlorophyll-a, CDOM, TSM, and POC from laboratory analysis; and simultaneous CTD, PAR, Secchi-disk, oxygen, transmissometry, and fluorescence profiles. Matchup analysis with Sentinel-3 OLCI and some initial biogeochemical-optics interconnection analyses are also presented.

Andrew Banks, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, 0000-0002-5142-1433

Stella Psarra, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Panos Drakopoulos, Laboratory of Optical Metrology (LOM), University of West Attica

Spyros Chaikalis, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Aristomenis Karageorgis, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Nektarios Spyridakis, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Katerina Kikaki, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Eleni Livanou, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Christina Zeri, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Elli Pitta, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Dimitris Velaoras, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Edouard Leymarie, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche LOV, CNRS, Sorbonne Université

Christophe Penkerc’h, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche LOV, CNRS, Sorbonne Université

Emmanuel Boss, School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine

Nils Haentjens, School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine

Andrew Barnard, Sea-Bird Scientific

Vincent Taillandier, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche LOV, CNRS, Sorbonne Université

Fabrizio D’Ortenzio, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche LOV, CNRS, Sorbonne Université

Xavier Durrieu de Madron, Centre d’Etude et de Formation sur les Environnements Méditerranéens, Université de Perpignan