POSTER Session 4

OPTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE AREA OF THE PROPOSED COPERNICUS OCEAN COLOR SYSTEM VICARIOUS CALIBRATION BUOY TO THE SOUTH OF CRETE ISLAND IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

The stable oligotrophic waters of the North-West Levantine Basin south of Crete, coupled with its overlying atmosphere that is cloud-free for much of the year, provide an excellent location for the planned Copernicus ocean color system vicarious calibration (OC-SVC) buoy. Until the international interest in this area for OC-SVC there were limited in situ optical data. However, since then the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), aided by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC), the University of Crete and EUMETSAT, have concentrated a great deal of effort on characterizing the location in terms of its atmospheric, oceanographic, satellite match-up, and in situ optical properties. This work in Crete has further relevance because the fourth developmental phase of engineering design and specification for the Copernicus OC-SVC infrastructure is due to start in 2024.In this presentation we will show the in situ optical characterization of the Crete OC-SVC site, based on apparent and inherent optical properties data from recent cruises within the Sentinel-3 OLCI era, the main one being a 2022 marine optics dedicated cruise around Crete carried out and funded by HCMR and JRC. HCMR followed strict protocols (IOCCG and FRM4SOC) during sensor calibration, field data collection and processing to obtain high quality in situ measurements of attenuation, absorption, backscattering, radiance, irradiance, chlorophyll-a and particle properties from these cruises. The results for similar parameters from a second HCMR-JRC optics cruise in July 2024, centered on the Crete OC-SVC buoy, will also be combined into the optical characterization.

Andrew Banks, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece, [email protected], https://orcid.org/000-0002-5142-1433

Spyros Chaikalis, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Aristomenis Karageorgis, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Stella Psarra, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Panos Drakopoulos, University of West Attica (UNIWA), Greece, [email protected]

Elli Pitta, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Christina Zeri, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Eleni Livanou, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Alexandra Pelteki, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Dimitris Velaoras, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

Nektarios Spyridakis, Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, [email protected]

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