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Sensors December was quite an exciting month in the ocean-colour world. The number of satellites carrying ocean-colour sensors has risen by two thanks to Terra and KOMPSAT being launched. This brings the number of current ocean-colour sensors to seven - and they are: MOS, SeaWiFS, OCI, OCM, MODIS, MISR and OSMI.
MODIS/MISR on Board Terra 
MODIS and MISR images are now available. MODIS images of the Mississippi Delta, and the Gulf of Mexico, are now
available at the MODIS website.
The Terra webpages are being regularly updated
with news of the mission status; they also include images from all of the sensors on board.The MISR website news pages are being updated very frequently with information on the status of the project. 
To date, 25 news releases have been issued this year.
The first MISR image is available on the Terra website.
Calibrated data products will be available roughly 90 to 120 days after launch via the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Data Gateway and the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). MODIS image provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
KOMPSAT It was almost a case of, "same place, same time," as two days after the launch of Terra, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute KARI launched their KOMPSAT satellite, also from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, on December 20th, 1999. 
The Taurus rocket carried two payloads, one of which was the
KOMPSAT, which carries three primary instruments, including an electro-optical camera for
the production of digital elevation maps of Korea, the Ocean Scanning Multispectral Imaging
instrument (OSMI) to study
biological oceanography, and a space physics sensor that will study
the effects of radiation on microelectronics and the characteristics of electrons in the
ionosphere. While the KOMPSAT website does not appear to have been updated recently, KARI also has an updated website for the KOMPSAT-1 Receiving and Processing Station (KRPS). Although the navigation bar is in English, the resulting links are in Korean. There are, however, some images available, including one from OSMI.
SeaWiFS 
SeaWiFS made the news all around the world recently with some incredible images. First was a dust storm larger than Spain,
drifting west across the Atlantic Ocean off northwest Africa. These images were seen on websites around the world, including on the BBC site.
Also images of the extreme weather and flooding in Mozambique were released.The images can be seen on the SeaWiFS site. Image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and ORBIMAGE.
Ocean-Color Imager (OCI) 
Taiwan's Ocean-Color imager, on board ROCSAT-1, is already sending back images, some of which
can be seen on the new ocean-colour gallery pages. All of the images are available by visiting the OCI recent images page.
MODIS-FM1 
A new website has been posted on the internet with details of the second MODIS ocean-colour instrument, due for launch
on December 21st, 2000. NASA's MODIS-FM1 will be on board Aqua, previously known as EOS-PM1.The excellent new site, which is located at http://eos-pm.gsfc.nasa.gov/, includes information on the mission, the spacecraft and instruments, including MODIS-FM1, and also includes a photo gallery.
GLI Delay 
In light of the failure of the last two H-II rocket launches, the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA),
has decided to delay the first launch of the H-IIA, an upgraded, less expensive version of the H-II.
The first H-IIA was scheduled to launch three satellites, including ARTEMIS, a communications technology demonstration satellite, in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA), in early 2000.It is now anticipated that the Global Imager, or GLI, on board ADEOS-II which will be on board the H-IIA rocket, will be launched no earlier than November 2000. Please note that many of the NASDA websites are temporarily unavailable, it is anticipated that all sites will be running again by the end of March. |
Ocean-Colour Gallery
As this website is dedicated to ocean-colour, we decided that there should be some actual ocean-colour images to look at.
Therefore, another addition to the IOCCG website is the ocean-colour gallery,
where a selection of images from all of the ocean-colour sensors have been assembled. Images can be viewed by continent or by sensor.Any images you would like to see in this section can be submitted to us electronically by e-mail.
Workshops, Conferences There are some elements of the 28th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE) conference, to be held in Cape Town from March 27th to 31st, 2000, that are of relevance to the ocean-colour community.
The submission date for contributions to the "Oceans from Space" meeting in Venice
is March 31st, not March 3rd as previously stated in their announcement.
The amended information is:
The deadline for abstracts for PORSEC 2000, being held in Goa, India, from December 5th-8th, 2000, has been extended to March 31st.
Fifth Workshop on "Physical Processes in Natural Waters", August 23-29, 2000, Irkutsk, Russia.
Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of the Ocean II (AEO5).
A training course in México has been announced, at the
Departamento de Oceanografía Física, CICESE, Ensenada B. C. For a more detailed list of workshops refer to our workshop page, and for training courses, our training page.
IOCCG Meeting The fifth IOCCG Committee meeting took place from February 1st - 4th in Hobart, Tasmania. Many items were discussed, the minutes of the meeting will be available on this website shortly. One of the topics was the eagerly awaited third IOCCG report, which deals with Case 2 waters.
References In another new section of the IOCCG website, we will be placing recent, relevant publications in the various aspects of ocean colour. The new page will be frequently updated, and every several months, we will incorporate these new references into our existing, extensive bibliography, which has also been updated. To go to the new references page, click here.
Employment Three new positions have been posted on the employment page: one at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, one at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and one at SCOR in Maryland.
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OCEAN OPTICS XV