Oral Session 5

El Hierro-Mar de Las Calmas (Canary Islands, Spain): Candidacy to host the European Commission Copernicus Ocean Color System Vicarious Calibration (OC-SVC) infrastructure

Ocean Color (OC) satellite missions provide essential data on a global and regional scale of living aquatic ecosystems, allowing continuous monitoring and assessment of ocean health and capable of detecting change. However, the marine optical signal represents only a small percentage of the signal detected by the satellite at the top of atmosphere. Consequently, to achieve the accuracy and stability needed for climate-quality ocean color data both for long-term and multi-mission time series, requires a complementary System Vicarious Calibration (SVC) of the satellite borne ocean color instruments. The European Commission (EC) Copernicus program has ocean color instruments on board the Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-2 missions and has now completed three planning phases of a state-of-the-art European OC-SVC infrastructure in coordination with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the EC Joint Research Centre. This work presents the candidacy of the site of El Hierro – Mar de Las Calmas (Canary Islands, Spain), which has reached the final selection phase to host the Copernicus Ocean Color System Vicarious Calibration (OC-SVC) infrastructure. Data from the oceanic and atmospheric climatological characterization of the proposed OC-SVC site will be presented. The European OC-SVC infrastructure would also be invaluable for the international community in terms of collaboration with other ocean color satellite missions such as the NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, launched in February 2024.

Eugenio Fraile-Nuez, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) / Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4250-4445

Carlos Torres, Izaña Atmospheric Research Center, State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), Spain

Celia Milford, Canary Islands Oceanographic Center, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

Jesús M. Arrieta, Canary Islands Oceanographic Center, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

Carlos Marrero, Izaña Atmospheric Research Center, State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), Spain

Juan José Bustos, Izaña Atmospheric Research Center, State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), Spain

Rosa Delia García, Tragsatec, Spain

África Barreto, Izaña Atmospheric Research Center, State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), Spain

Omaira E. García, Izaña Atmospheric Research Center, State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), Spain

Alberto Redondas, Izaña Atmospheric Research Center, State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), Spain

David Suárez-Molina, Delegation of AEMET in the Canary Islands (DTCAN), State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), Spain

Desirée Palomino, Canary Islands Oceanographic Center, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

Pedro Llanillo, Canary Islands Oceanographic Center, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

Juan Pablo Martín-Díaz, Canary Islands Oceanographic Center, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

Ángela Mosquera, Canary Islands Oceanographic Center, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

Alba González-Vega, Canary Islands Oceanographic Center, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

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