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For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu

'''Short description:'''

For the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, the ESA Ocean Colour CCI Remote Sensing Reflectance (merged, bias-corrected Rrs) data are used to compute surface Chlorophyll (mg m-3, 1 km resolution) using the regional OC5CCI chlorophyll algorithm. The Rrs are generated by merging the data from SeaWiFS, MODIS-Aqua, MERIS, VIIRS and OLCI-3A sensors and realigning the spectra to that of the MERIS sensor. The algorithm used is OC5CCI - a variation of OC5 (Gohin et al., 2002) developed by IFREMER in collaboration with PML. As part of this development, an OC5CCI look up table was generated specifically for application over OC- CCI merged daily remote sensing reflectances. The resulting OC5CCI algorithm was tested and selected through an extensive calibration exercise that analysed the quantitative performance against in situ data for several algorithms in these specific regions. Phytoplankton functional types (PFT) dataset provides daily chlorophyll concentrations of 5 phytoplankton groups: nano-, pico-, micro-phytoplankton, diatoms and dinoflagellates. Micro consists of the sum of diatoms and dinoflagellates. L3 products are daily files, while the L4 are monthly composites. ESA-CCI Rrs raw data are provided by PML. These are processed to produce chlorophyll concentration using the same in-house software as in the operational processing. Ocean colour technique exploits the emerging electromagnetic radiation from the sea surface in different wavelengths. The spectral variability of this signal defines the so called ocean colour which is affected by the presence of phytoplankton. By comparing reflectances at different wavelengths and calibrating the result against in-situ measurements, an estimate of chlorophyll content can be derived.

'''Processing information:'''

ESA OC-CCI Rrs raw data are provided by Plymouth Marine Laboratory, currently at 4km resolution globally. These are processed to produce chlorophyll concentration using the same in-house software as in the operational processing. The entire CCI data set is consistent and processing is done in one go. Both OC CCI and the REP product are versioned. Standard masking criteria for detecting clouds or other contamination factors have been applied during the generation of the Rrs, i.e., land, cloud, sun glint, atmospheric correction failure, high total radiance, large solar zenith angle (70deg), large spacecraft zenith angle (56deg), coccolithophores, negative water leaving radiance, and normalized water leaving radiance at 560 nm 0.15 Wm-2 sr-1 (McClain et al., 1995). For the regional products, a variant of the OC-CCI chain is run to produce high resolution data at the 1km resolution necessary. A detailed description of the ESA OC-CCI processing system can be found in OC-CCI (2014e).

'''Description of observation methods/instruments:'''

Ocean colour technique exploits the emerging electromagnetic radiation from the sea surface in different wavelengths. The spectral variability of this signal defines the so called ocean colour which is affected by the presence of phytoplankton. By comparing reflectances at different wavelengths and calibrating the result against in-situ measurements, an estimate of chlorophyll content can be derived.

'''Quality / Accuracy / Calibration information:'''

Detailed description of cal/val is given in the relevant QUID, associated validation reports and quality documentation.

'''Suitability, Expected type of users / uses:'''

This product is meant for use for educational purposes and for the managing of the marine safety, marine resources, marine and coastal environment and for climate and seasonal studies.

'''DOI (product) :'''

https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00071