IOCCG News First Meeting of the PFT Working Group The IOCCG working group on Phytoplankton Functional Types (PFTs) met for the first time last month (6-7 July 2006) at the CNES Headquarters in Paris. They reached their objectives for the meeting and agreed upon an outline for the report and exchanged ideas on the science. The second meeting will take place in Montreal in October 2006, in conjunction with the Ocean Optics conference. Publications by IOCCG Fellowship Students Over the past few years, the IOCCG has provided fellowships to a number of young scientists to travel to foreign institutes to work with experts in the field. These exchanges have been extremely successful and have lead to advanced training in specific areas and, recently, to the publication of the research carried out during these exchanges. Fellowship student Caiyun Zhang from Xiamen University in China worked with Dr. Chuanmin Hu at the University of South Florida to complete a study on ocean-colour data product validation and comparison over the northern South China Sea and Taiwan Strait using a time-series of MODIS and SeaWiFS high resolution data as well as in situ data. Their finding were recently published in Remote Sensing of Environment 102: 250-263 (2006). They found that MODIS and SeaWiFS Chl data were comparable, with no significant bias in either data set. Errors for turbid coastal waters were somewhat larger than for offshore waters, but the difference between MODIS and SeaWiFS Chl data was less than between satellite and in situ data. The authors concluded that it would be possible to continue the time-series using only one sensor such as MODIS, in the eventual absence of SeaWiFS. Another fellowship student, Aurea Ciotti (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil), worked with Dr. Annick Bricaud at Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche (France) on retrieving information on phytoplankton cell size and light absorption by coloured detrital material (CDM) from satellite data. Their paper was recently accepted for publication in L&O: Methods (July 2006). They presented two procedures to retrieve simultaneously the magnitudes and spectral shapes for both light absorption by CDM and phytoplankton, along with a size parameter for phytoplankton. They were able to retrieve the absorption coefficient of CDM and phytoplankton light absorption coefficients from SeaWiFS radiances over the study area with a RMSE of between 28 - 33%, comparable or better than published models. A third paper was recently published by South Korean Fellowship student SeungHyun Son and colleagues entitled Primary production in the Yellow Sea determined by ocean color remote sensing (Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 303: 91-103). They used the primary production algorithm of Platt & Sathyendranath (1988) to estimate primary production in the Yellow Sea to provide the first synoptic views of primary production in this area. WATeRS: A portal for water quality information products from operational remote sensing The Institute for Environmental Studies of the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam has developed a generic method to convert MODIS-Aqua satellite data to information in GIS format. The information is provided in near-real time and is freely available on the Internet via the customised WATeRS web portal. This is an innovative ArcIMS-application with a WMS ArcIMS-OGC connector which enables users to interactively explore remote-sensing products, and to seamlessly combine the data with other data with a geographic component. The service has been created for the North Sea only, but the procedure could be adapted for other regions, and also other algorithms and sensors. Training Course in Vietnam A training course entitled "A comprehensive hands-on course in satellite oceanography with emphasis on ocean colour, SST and HAB" funded by POGO was held from 7-13 May 2006 in Nha Trang, Vietnam. The course took place at the Institute of Oceanography, Nha Trang. Visiting professors were Prof. Joji Ishizaka (Nagasaki University) and Dr. Mati Kahru (Scripps Institution of Oceanography). The trainees came from a variety of institutions in Vietnam, such as the Institute of Oceanography Nha Trang, Institute of Marine Environment and Resources, Hai Phong, Institute of Physics, Hanoi, the National University of Ho Chi Minh City, as well as local government offices of various provinces. Over the course of one week 29 trainees (including 9 observers) received lectures and hands-on training in analysing data from various satellites using different methods. Students used software contributed by WimSoft throughout the course. Nippon-POGO Visiting Professorship The application deadline for the Nippon Foundation-POGO Visiting Professorship Programme has been extended to 15 August 2006 . The programme allows an experienced scientist to visit an oceanographic institution in a developing country to give lectures and provide training in his/her area of speciality. The general theme of the Visiting Professorships is “Towards Operational Oceanography”. A maximum budget of $123,000 will be available for each visiting professorship including books, research and purchase of equipment. For further details see the POGO website.

News from NASA Another Year of SeaWiFS Data NOAA, working in partnership with NASA, recently announced that it is enabling continued access to satellite ocean data from SeaWiFS onboard the OrbView-2 satellite (operated by GeoEye Corporation). Through existing agreements with GeoEye and NASA, NOAA will, for the first time, provide funds to continue the collection of SeaWiFS data, including global coverage at 4-km, and contiguous U.S. coverage at 1-km. NASA will continue to support mission operations and science data analysis of the SeaWiFS data, as well as provide access to resulting data products for Earth science research. NOAA support will extend access to higher resolution SeaWiFS data for local U.S. waters until September 2006, and global data until April 2007. Chlorophyll Anomaly Product NASA has recently started producing the very useful chlorophyll-a anomaly product, which is derived for each year, season, and month of the SeaWiFS mission, based on nearly 9-years of SeaWiFS data (starting September 1997). These products are produced by subtracting the climatological averages for each time period from the averages for just the period under consideration. The differences, with respect to the climatology (in mg m-3), are logarithmically scaled and assigned colours on the positive- or negative-anomaly portion of the colour scale. The anomaly products can be reached directly at: http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/anomalies.pl Giovanni NASA has a comprehensive image analysis, display and plotting tool for data sets, in the form of the Giovanni interface (GES-DISC Interactive Online Visualization and ANalysis Infrastructure) - see website http://reason.gsfc.nasa.gov/Giovanni/. Researchers can select a data set, a region of interest, and a time-period of interest, and performance basic data analyses and create several different types of visualizations. Giovanni also includes a climatological anomaly analysis function of all SeaWiFS SMI products, based on the SeaWiFS climatology base period from September 1997 - May 2005. Use of the single base period makes this climatological anomaly analysis different from that produced by the OBPG (see above), which is updated monthly with a new base period. Chlorophyll anomaly analysis is a truly exciting new way to look at the data, and it allows discovery of features and phenomena that may have been difficult to detect previously. News from ESA GlobCOLOUR CDR meeting ESA's GlobCOLOUR Project, which aims to develop a 10-year global ocean-colour data set by merging together information from four satellite sensors SeaWiFS, MODIS-Aqua, MERIS and Parasol/ POLDER, recently held their Critical Design Review meeting in Paris (10-11 July 2006). The in-situ characterisation of MERIS, MODIS and SeaWiFS was reveiwed, amongst other items on the agenda. The in situ characterisation for chlorophyll and the diffuse attenuation coefficient produced some useable results but the in situ nLw characterization will undergo additional work. The sensor cross characterization showed that this changes with the different acquisition situations (observation conditions, seasonal variations and regional sensitivity). A final merging method for the GlobCOLOUR project will be decided upon shortly, with the following pre-selection methods: weighted averaging GSM01 (Garver-Siegel-Maritorena, version 1) Optimal interpolation The first GlobCOLOUR user workshop will be held in Villefranche, France (tentative dates Dec. 4-7, 2006) to get feedback from a wider community than those directly involved in the project. MERIS Monitors HABs in Chile Aerial photograph of HABs affecting salmon cages in southern Chile (from Rodriguez-Benito et al. 2003). The ESA-funded Chilean Aquaculture Project (CAP) is currently utilizing a combination of near real-time EO data, such as chlorophyll-a pigment concentration, suspended matter and sea-surface temperature derived from the MERIS and MODIS ocean colour instruments as well as in situ water monitoring to detect potential harmful algal blooms (HABs) that could endanger Chile's aquaculture projects. A hydrodynamic model, established and validated through the project, is also being used to characterize the water circulation patterns in the major aquaculture area in southern Chile. Chile currently is the world's largest producer of farmed salmon and also had many mussel farms, which are vulnerable to HABs. Early detection of HABs allows fish farmers to make timely key decisions in order to minimize the damage to aquaculture. The CAP project was presented at the AQUA2006 event organized by the World Aquaculture Society in Florence, Italy (May 2006) and trigged significant interest for EO-based information service in the aquaculture industry. New References Several new references have been added to the Recent Ocean Colour References (2004-2006) section of the IOCCG website including a publication by Hu et al., which appeared in the April 2006 issue of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters entitled Ocean color reveals phase shift between marine plants and yellow substance. Using high temporal and spatial resolution SeaWiFS data (1998-2003) from an oligotrophic gyre centre, the authors demonstrate that there is a phase shift (time lag) between the absorption coefficient of phytoplankton pigment and that of coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM), with CDOM peaks lagging ~2 weeks behind phytoplankton peaks and CDOM troughs lagging by ~4 weeks. This phase shift provides indirect evidence that CDOM in the gyre is produced by phytoplankton growth, grazing, and degradation, and that the common assumption of linear co-variation between phytoplankton and CDOM (the basis for the band-ratio chlorophyll algorithms) may need to be revisited. The phase shift will also have an impact on the bio-optical band-ratio algorithm used to estimate chlorophyll concentration from remote sensing observations causing an overestimate in the magnitude of the spring bloom and an underestimat of Chl concentrations in the fall. These observations were only possible through use of synoptic, precise, accurate, and frequent measurements afforded by space-based sensors. In situ technologies cannot provide the required sensitivity or synoptic coverage to observe these natural phenomena. Special Session AGU Fall Meeting A special AGU session OS05 (AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, 11-15 December 2006) entitled "Ocean Phytoplankton from Sea, Space, and Computers" is being convened by Watson Gregg (GSFC/NASA, USA) and Cyril Moulin (LSCE/IPSL, France). They look forward to receiving your abstracts and having an exciting session with your participation. Ocean phytoplankton are important contributors to ecology, carbon cycling, fisheries, and biodiversity. In particular, evaluation of Phytoplankton Functional Types (PFTs) is an emerging field in biological oceanography. New algorithms are being developed to detect certain PFTs from space. In parallel, biogeochemical modellers are increasingly incorporating PFTs for more realistic simulations. Both modeling and algorithm developments require in situ data observations for evaluation. Methods for discriminating in situ phytoplankton groups are also varied in the scientific literature. This session solicits research emphasizing phytoplankton identification, characterization, simulation, and data analysis. They would like to bring together scientists working on various aspects of ocean phytoplankton to promote advances in this emerging field. For further details of the meeting see http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/. Employment Opportunities Several new job opportunities and post-doctoral positions have been posted on the IOCCG Employment Opportunities webpage, including a ........... Please see http://www.ioccg.org/employment.html for further details on all positions.