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Systematical spectral ultraviolet (UV) radiation measurements have been carried out in Toravere, Estonia, since 2004. Together with the data from local meteorology and AERONET stations, satellites, and model calculations, a versatile dataset is available. For the current work, characteristics of daily, seasonal, and annual doses of UVB (280–315 nm) and UVA (315–400 nm) from 2004–2016 are presented and related to global solar radiation, column ozone, and aerosol levels. The annual average UVB dose for 2004–2016 is 3080 kJ/m2 (st. dev. 200 kJ/m2) and UVA dose is 193.4 MJ/m2 (st. dev. 9.8 MJ/m2). Most of the annual radiation is received during summer (~ 57% of UVB and ~ 47% of UVA) and spring. The highest annual UVB doses were recorded in 2005 and 2011, and UVA doses in 2011 and 2013. The lowest values for both wavelength ranges were in 2004 and 2008. UV doses that are noticeably lower or higher from the averages are directly related to longer periods of low/high cloudiness, atypical ozone thickness, or elevated aerosol levels. There are no significant trends in UV radiation doses for the period neither for annual nor seasonal level. The same is true for the factors influencing UV: ozone, global solar radiation, and aerosol optical depth.

A field intercomparison was conducted at the Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower (AAOT) in the northern Adriatic Sea, from 9 to 19 July 2018 to assess differences in the accuracy of in- and above-water radiometer measurements used for the validation of ocean colour products. Ten measurement systems were compared. Prior to the intercomparison, the absolute radiometric calibration of all sensors was carried out using the same standards and methods at the same reference laboratory. Measurements were performed under clear sky conditions, relatively low sun zenith angles, moderately low sea state and on the same deployment platform and frame (except in-water systems). The weighted average of five above-water measurements was used as baseline reference for comparisons. For downwelling irradiance ( E d ), there was generally good agreement between sensors with differences of

Currently, water monitoring programs are mainly based on in situ measurements; however, this approach is time-consuming, expensive, and may not reflect the status of the whole water body. The availability of Multispectral Imager (MSI) and Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) free data with high spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution has increased the potential of adding remote sensing techniques into monitoring programs, leading to improvement of the quality of monitoring water. This study introduced an optical water type guided approach for boreal regions inland and coastal waters to estimate optical water quality parameters, such as the concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and total suspended matter (TSM), the absorption coefficient of coloured dissolved organic matter at a wavelength of 442 nm (aCDOM(442)), and the Secchi disk depth, from hyperspectral, OLCI, and MSI reflectance data. This study was based on data from 51 Estonian and Finnish lakes and from the Baltic Sea coastal area, which altogether were used in 415 in situ measurement stations and covered a wide range of optical water quality parameters (Chl-a: 0.5−215.2 mg·m−3; TSM: 0.6−46.0 mg·L−1; aCDOM(442): 0.4−43.7 m−1; and Secchi disk depth: 0.2−12.2 m). For retrieving optical water quality parameters from reflectance spectra, we tested 132 empirical algorithms. The study results describe the best algorithm for each optical water type for each spectral range and for each optical water quality parameter. The correlation was high, from 0.87 up to 0.93, between the in situ measured optical water quality parameters and the parameters predicted by the optical water type guided approach.

This paper describes spectral stray light measurements of diode array spectrometers and, in particular, the dependence of stray light and bandpass properties on the illumination beam geometry. The effects of underfilling and overfilling the nominal field of view of the instrument are presented. Our measurements showed that the line spread function of a commercially available miniature spectrometer module having a fiber optic entrance with 0.22 nominal numerical aperture can depend on fiber illumination cone apex angle up to $40^\circ$ , which is well above the $25^\circ$ nominal acceptance cone apex angle of the fiber. The bandpass width and amount of stray light inside the spectrometer increased proportionally with the illumination cone angle. Spectral stray light measurements with different setups gave consistent and repeatable results for similar illumination geometries. Care should be taken to ensure that illumination geometry during spectral stray light characterization of a spectrometer matches the conditions during target measurements for which the spectral stray light corrections are applied. The impact of illumination geometry during stray light characterization depends on the target signal and particular application. Photochemical reflectance index (PRI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of a hemiboreal birch forest are used as contrasting examples in this paper. Compared to natural variability, the relative impact on PRI exceeds that of NDVI by 10 times.

The Sentinel-3 mission launched its first satellite Sentinel-3A in 2016 to be followed by Sentinel-3B and Sentinel-3C to provide long-term operational measurements over Earth. Sentinel-3A and 3B are in full operational status, allowing global coverage in less than two days, usable to monitor optical water quality and provide data for environmental studies. However, due to limited ground truth data, the product quality has not yet been analyzed in detail with the fiducial reference measurement (FRM) dataset. Here, we use the fully characterized ground truth FRM dataset for validating Sentinel-3A Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) radiometric products over optically complex Estonian inland waters and Baltic Sea coastal areas. As consistency between satellite and local data depends on uncertainty in field measurements, filtering of the in situ data has been made based on the uncertainty for the final comparison. We have compared various atmospheric correction methods and found POLYMER (POLYnomial-based algorithm applied to MERIS) to be most suitable for optically complex waters under study in terms of product accuracy, amount of usable data and also being least influenced by the adjacency effect.

The European Space Agency’s Copernicus satellites Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 provide observations with high spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution which can be used to monitor inland and coastal waters. Such waters are optically complex, and the water color may vary from completely clear to dark brown. The main factors influencing water color are colored dissolved organic matter, phytoplankton, and suspended sediments. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the use of the optical water type (OWT) classification in the remote sensing of ocean color. Such classification helps to clarify relationships between different properties inside a certain class and quantify variation between classes. In this study, we present a new OWT classification based on the in situ measurements of reflectance spectra for boreal region lakes and coastal areas without extreme optical conditions. This classification divides waters into five OWT (Clear, Moderate, Turbid, Very Turbid, and Brown) and shows that different OWTs have different remote sensing reflectance spectra and that each OWT is associated with a specific bio-optical condition. Developed OWTs are distinguishable by both the MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) and the Ocean and Land Color Instrument (OLCI) sensors, and the accuracy of the OWT assignment was 95% for both the MSI and OLCI bands. To determine OWT from MSI images, we tested different atmospheric correction (AC) processors, namely ACOLITE, C2RCC, POLYMER, and Sen2Cor and for OLCI images, we tested AC processors ALTNNA, C2RCC, and L2. The C2RCC AC processor was the most accurate and reliable for use with MSI and OLCI images to estimate OWTs.

An intercomparison of radiance and irradiance ocean color radiometers (the second laboratory comparison exercise—LCE-2) was organized within the frame of the European Space Agency funded project Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Ocean Color (FRM4SOC) May 8–13, 2017 at Tartu Observatory, Estonia. LCE-2 consisted of three sub-tasks: (1) SI-traceable radiometric calibration of all the participating radiance and irradiance radiometers at the Tartu Observatory just before the comparisons; (2) indoor, laboratory intercomparison using stable radiance and irradiance sources in a controlled environment; (3) outdoor, field intercomparison of natural radiation sources over a natural water surface. The aim of the experiment was to provide a link in the chain of traceability from field measurements of water reflectance to the uniform SI-traceable calibration, and after calibration to verify whether different instruments measuring the same object provide results consistent within the expected uncertainty limits. This paper describes the third phase of LCE-2: The results of the field experiment. The calibration of radiometers and laboratory comparison experiment are presented in a related paper of the same journal issue. Compared to the laboratory comparison, the field intercomparison has demonstrated substantially larger variability between freshly calibrated sensors, because the targets and environmental conditions during radiometric calibration were different, both spectrally and spatially. Major differences were found for radiance sensors measuring a sunlit water target at viewing zenith angle of 139° because of the different fields of view. Major differences were found for irradiance sensors because of imperfect cosine response of diffusers. Variability between individual radiometers did depend significantly also on the type of the sensor and on the specific measurement target. Uniform SI traceable radiometric calibration ensuring fairly good consistency for indoor, laboratory measurements is insufficient for outdoor, field measurements, mainly due to the different angular variability of illumination. More stringent specifications and individual testing of radiometers for all relevant systematic effects (temperature, nonlinearity, spectral stray light, etc.) are needed to reduce biases between instruments and better quantify measurement uncertainties.

An intercomparison of radiance and irradiance ocean color radiometers (the second laboratory comparison exercise--LCE-2) was organized within the frame of the European Space Agency funded project Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Ocean Color (FRM4SOC) May 8-13, 2017 at Tartu Observatory, Estonia. LCE-2 consisted of three sub-tasks: (1) SI-traceable radiometric calibration of all the participating radiance and irradiance radiometers at the Tartu Observatory just before the comparisons; (2) indoor, laboratory intercomparison using stable radiance and irradiance sources in a controlled environment; (3) outdoor, field intercomparison of natural radiation sources over a natural water surface. The aim of the experiment was to provide a link in the chain of traceability from field measurements of water reflectance to the uniform SI-traceable calibration, and after calibration to verify whether different instruments measuring the same object provide results consistent within the expected uncertainty limits. This paper describes the third phase of LCE-2: The results of the field experiment. The calibration of radiometers and laboratory comparison experiment are presented in a related paper of the same journal issue [1]. Compared to the laboratory comparison, the field intercomparison has demonstrated substantially larger variability between freshly calibrated sensors, because the targets and environmental conditions during radiometric calibration were different, both spectrally and spatially. Major differences were found for radiance sensors measuring a sunlit water target at viewing zenith angle of 139° because of the different fields of view. Major differences were found for irradiance sensors because of imperfect cosine response of diffusers. Variability between individual radiometers did depend significantly also on the type of the sensor and on the specific measurement target. Uniform SI traceable radiometric calibration ensuring fairly good consistency for indoor, laboratory measurements is insufficient for outdoor, field measurements, mainly due to the different angular variability of illumination. More stringent specifications and individual testing of radiometers for all relevant systematic effects (temperature, nonlinearity, spectral stray light, etc.) are needed to reduce biases between instruments and better quantify measurement uncertainties.

Wavelength-dependent attenuation of ground-level ultraviolet (UV) dose by different cloud and aerosol situations at the Tartu Observatory site (58°15' N, 26°28' E, 70 m a.s.l) is under scrutiny. The spectra at wavelengths ranging below 400 nm have been recorded by the simple Avantes, Inc. array spectrometer AvaSpec-256 in 2004-2009. The spectral information was supported by the conventional broadband solar irradiance and by the necessary meteorological data. The average cloud modification factor (CMF) on overcast days from May to August has been quite low, 0.36 in UVA and 0.35 in UVB. In the UVA range, the reduction of the daily dose with increasing noon solar zenith angle (SZA) from 35-50° to 65-80° in overcast days has been about 20% more than in clear days, while in the UVB range it was 45% larger. No clear difference in the influence of SZA on CMF between low level (St, Ns) and medium level (As, Ac) overcast cloudiness has been found. The aerosol attenuation during large aerosol optical depth (AOD) episode has been comparable with that of medium level clouds with the wavelength dependency in the UVA range different from that of clouds.

The time series of the daily sums of global and direct irradiance recorded at Tartu-Toravere Meteorological Station site (58°16′N, 26°28′E, 70 m a.s.l.) in 1955–2006 have been analyzed in seasonal timescales. The average daily ratio G/G clear of available global irradiance to its local climatic clear-sky value in the summer half-year corresponds to 65.5%, while that of the direct irradiance on the horizontal surface I′/I′ clear was 41% of the climatic clear-sky value. In the case of dry Rayleigh atmosphere as a reference, these ratios are 53.5% and 28%, respectively. The time series of the summer season totals reveal a longer interval of reduced values in 1976–1993 as well as two periods of frequent sunny summers in 1967–1975 and since 1994. The probability density distribution of the summer season totals during the observed period is strongly asymmetric; in spring, however, it is close to the normal distribution. In winter, there is a moderate negative correlation between the G/G clear and the North Atlantic Oscillation as well as the Arctic Oscillation indices.

A system to record the ultraviolet (UV) spectra of atmospheric global irradiance with the miniature fiber optic spectrometer AvaSpec-256 was developed for continuous computer-aided spectrometry at Tartu Observatory in 2005. As a result, the database of spectra recorded with 15-min-interval round 24 h over 300–400 nm, has been developed. The quantities retrieved from the spectra have been compared with those measured by the Scintec erythemal UV-SET sensor and the Kipp & Zonen narrowband 306 nm sensor. Almost clear and overcast days were selected for comparison. Reliable results on the spectral distribution of the UV global irradiance as well as the integrated daily spectral doses could be obtained at least during the bright half-year. The results were compared with the calculations performed by means of the LibRadtran package. The biases in irradiance were significant at SZA above 70–75°. At dominating larger SZA the recorded values need sophisticated corrections and remain less reliable. At lower latitudes than that of the study site (58.3°), the reliability of the spectrometer is expected to increase due to a smaller contribution of data measured at large SZA. The variations of the ratio of UV-A/UV-B irradiance, retrieved from the spectra, were investigated. Also the covariation of the narrowband 306 nm irradiance and the irradiance integrated over the whole UV-B range was studied. The biases between the UV-A/UV-B irradiances calculated by means of the LibRadtran package and measured with the AvaSpec were small at SZA below 70°. At larger SZA the values of the ratio as well as the biases increased, significantly depending on total ozone.

A simple linear interpolation of the spectral responsivity of a special type detector has been obtained in the range from 960 nm to 1550 nm. The detector consisted of three InGaAs-based photodiodes arranged in reflection trap detector mode. In such a detector, the photodiodes are mounted in a configuration where the non-absorbed reflected light from the first photodiode is directed to the subsequent photodiode having totally five reflections in the detector. As a result, the overall reflectance of the trap detector is smaller than that of a single photodiode improving responsivity performance significantly. The trap detector was calibrated in the wavelength range from 840 nm to 1700 nm. We found that in the near infrared (NIR) spectral range from 960 nm to 1550 nm the responsivity of our trap detector is almost linear function of on the wavelength: the deviation of measured responsivity values from fitted line was within ±0.8 %.

Stray light perturbations are unwanted distortions of the measured spectrum due to the nonideal performance of optical radiometers. Because of this, stray light characterization and correction is essential when accurate radiometric measurements are a necessity. In agreement with such a need, this study focused on stray light correction of hyperspectral radiometers widely applied for above-water measurements to determine the remote-sensing reflectance (RRS). Stray light of sample radiometers was experimentally characterized and a correction algorithm was developed and applied to field measurements performed in the Mediterranean Sea. Results indicate that mean stray light corrections are appreciable, with values generally varying from −1% to +1% in the 400–700 nm spectral region for downward irradiance and sky radiance, and from −1% to +4% for total radiance from the sea. Mean corrections for data products such as RRS exhibit values that depend on water type varying between −0.5% and +1% in the blue–green spectral region, with peaks up to 9% in the red in eutrophic waters. The possibility of using one common stray light correction matrix for the analyzed class of radiometers was also investigated. Results centered on RRS support such a feasibility at the expense of an increment of the uncertainty typically well below 0.5% in the blue–green and up to 1% in the red, assuming sensors are based on spectrographs from the same production batch.

Inter-comparison of data products from simultaneous measurements performed with independent systems and methods is a viable approach to assess the consistency of data and additionally to investigate uncertainties. Within such a context the inter-comparison called Assessment of In Situ Radiometric Capabilities for Coastal Water Remote Sensing Applications (ARC), was carried out at the Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower in the northern Adriatic Sea to explore the accuracy of in situ data products from various in- and above-water optical systems and methods. Measurements were performed under almost ideal conditions including: a stable deployment platform, clear sky, relatively low sun zenith angles and moderately low sea state. Additionally, all optical sensors involved in the experiment were inter-calibrated through a post-field absolute radiometric calibration performed with the same standards and methods. Inter-compared data products include: spectral water-leaving radiance Lw,above-water downward irradiance Ed(0+) and remote sensing reflectance Rrs. Data products from the various measurement systems/methods were directly compared to those from a single reference system/method. Results for Rrs indicate spectrally averaged values of relative differences comprised between -1 and +6%, while spectrally averaged absolute values of relative differences vary from approximately 6% for the above-water systems/methods to 9% for buoy-based systems/methods. The good agreement between Rrs spectral relative differences and estimates of combined uncertainties of the inter-compared systems/methods is noteworthy., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

Optical close-range instruments can be applied to derive water quality parameters for monitoring purposes and for validation of optical satellite data. In situ radiometers are often difficult to deploy, especially from a small boat or a remote location. The water insight spectrometer (WISP-3) is a new hand-held radiometer for monitoring water quality, which automatically performs measurements with three radiometers (L-sky, L-u, E-d) and does not need to be connected with cables and electrical power during measurements. The instrument is described and its performance is assessed by an intercomparison to well-known radiometers, under real fieldwork conditions using a small boat and with sometimes windy and cloudy weather. Root mean squared percentage errors relative to those of the TriOS system were generally between 20% and 30% for remote sensing reflection, which was comparable to those of the other instruments included in this study. From this assessment, it can be stated that for the tested conditions, the WISP-3 can be used to obtain reflection spectra with accuracies in the same range as well-known instruments. When tuned with suitable regional algorithms, it can be used for quick scans for water quality monitoring of Chl, SPM, and aCDOM. (C) 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.6.063615]

In the geographic latitudes above 50° there is a period in each winter when the level of short-wave ultraviolet radiation (UVR) remains below the threshold needed for vitamin D synthesis in human skin. Vitamin D is produced with maximum efficiency at wavelengths around 297 nm. We proceed from the assumption that spectral irradiance at 306 nm is closely related to that at the wavelength 297 nm. The daily totals of the continuously recorded 306 nm spectral irradiance above the threshold value for vitamin D production have been studied during spring and autumnal transition periods as well as in summer. The "vitamin D winter" at the Tartu-Toravere Meteorological Station site (58.16'N, 26°.28'E, 70 m a.s.l.) lasted for 100-105 days from about Nov 6 to Feb 19 in cloudless weather and climatic total ozone conditions. During the closest 10 days to the conventional "vitamin D winter" in the most unfavorable conditions there could be no availability of the vitamin D synthesizing irradiance above its threshold level. In the most favorable conditions in separate cases small doses above the threshold could be available even about two weeks before the conventional end of the "vitamin D winter".

This paper presents a novel low-power imaging system for nanosatellite proximity operations. A robust independent camera module with on-board image processing, based on the ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller and fast static random access memory, has been developed and characterized for the requirements of the ESTCube-1 mission. The imaging system, optimized for use in a single unit CubeSat, utilizes commercial off-the-shelf components and standard interfaces for a cost-effective reusable design. The resulting 43.3 mm £ 22 mm £ 44.2 mm (W£ H£ D) aluminium camera module weighs 30 g and consumes on the average of 118 mW of power, with peaks of 280 mW during image capture. Space qualification and stress tests have been performed. A detailed case study for the ESTCube-1 10 m tether deployment monitoring and Earth imaging mission is presented. For this purpose a 4.4 mm telecentric lens, 10 bit 640£ 480 pixel CMOS image sensor, 700 nm infrared cut-off filter and a 25% neutral density filter are used. The resolution of the assembled system is 12.7 mm and 1 km per pixel at distances of 10 m and 700 km, respectively. Custom on-board image evaluation and high dynamic range imaging algorithms for ESTCube-1 have been implemented and tested. Optical calibration of the assembled system has been performed.

This paper presents the design, development, and pre-launch characterization of the ESTCube-1 Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS). The design driver for the ADCS has been the mission requirement to spin up the satellite to 360 deg¢s i1 with controlled orientation of the spin axis and to acquire the angular velocity and the attitude during the scientific experiment. ESTCube-1 is a one-unit CubeSat launched on 7 May 2013, 2:06 UTC on board the Vega VV02 rocket. Its primary mission is to measure the Coulomb drag force exerted by a natural plasma stream on a charged tether and, therefore, to perform the basic proof of concept measurement and technology demonstration of electric solar wind sail technology. The attitude determination system uses three-axis magnetometers, three-axis gyroscopic sensors, and two-axis Sun sensors, a Sun sensor on each side of the satellite. While commercial off-the-shelf components are used for magnetometers and gyroscopic sensors, Sun sensors are custom- built based on analogue one-dimensional position sensitive detectors. The attitude of the satellite is estimated on board using an Unscented Kalman Filter. An ARM 32-bit processor is used for ADCS calculations. Three electromagnetic coils are used for attitude control. The system is characterized through tests and simulations. Results include mass and power budgets, estimated uncertainties as well as attitude determination and control performance. The system fulfils all mission requirements.

Fiducial reference measurements are in-situ data traceable to metrology standards, with associated uncertainties. This paper presents the methodology used to derive the uncertainty budget for underway, above-water measurements from the Seabird Hyperspectral Surface Acquisition System deployed on an Atlantic Meridional Transect in 2018. The average uncertainty of remote sensing reflectance for clear sky days was ∼ 6% at wavelengths 550 nm. The environmental variability such as sun position, wind speed and skylight distribution caused the greatest uncertainty. The different components of the uncertainty budget are critically assessed to indicate how the measurement procedure could be improved through reducing the principal uncertainty sources.