Ondrusek, Michael, Lance, Veronica Peterson, Arnone, Robert, Ladner, Sherwin, Goode, Wesley, Vandermeulen, Ryan, Freeman, Scott, Chaves, Joaquin E., Mannino, Antonio, Gilerson, Alex, Ahmed, Sam, Carrizo, Carlos, El-Habashi, Ahmed, Foster, Robert, Ottaviani, Matteo, Goes, Joaquim I., Gomes, Helga Do Rosario, McKee, Kali, Hu, Chuanmin, Kovach, Charles, English, David, Cannizzaro, Jennifer, Johnson, B. Carol, Lee, Zhongping, Wei, Jianwei, Wang, Quoqing, Lin, Junfang, Tufillaro, Nicholas, Nahorniak, Jasmine, Davis, Curtiss O., Voss, Kenneth J., Stengel, Eric, and Wang, Menghua
The overall aim of this NOAA VIIRS 2015 Ocean Color Calibration/Validation (Cal/Val) Cruise aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster (NF-15-13) was the collection of high quality in situ optical and related biogeochemical data for purpose of validating of satellite ocean color radiometry and derived products from VIIRS-SNPP, part of the JPSS program [Wang et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014]. A second aim was to make measurements in support of science and applied studies that seek to characterize the optical signatures of the variety of water masses encountered (i.e., coastal, near-shore, cross-shelf, eddies, fronts, filaments, blue water, etc.). Thirdly, the design of the sampling strategies will lead to quantifying the confidence intervals of these measurements. Together, the validation of radiometry, the optical signatures of water types and the quantification of uncertainties, will lead to improvements in the extent and accuracy of satellite derived observations of the near surface ocean environment (...) The cruise data collection will be deposited at NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch and made available for convenient access to the ocean community. Data will be formally archived through NOAA/NESDIS National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) as required by NOAA.