AOC – Aeolus Ocean Colour

Project description

The Aeolus Ocean Colour (AOC) project aims at assessing the potential of the ADM-Aeolus mission to monitor ocean sub-surface optical and biogeochemical properties, based on the measurements of the wind lidar ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument) at 355 nm. AOC is funded by ESA within the framework of the Aeolus+ Innovation project.

Project objectives

The retrieval scheme for the AOC products relies upon parametric relationships between the lidar signal and the parameters of interest, in a stepwise approach:

• lidar-derived optical parameters, inferred from the two lidar profiles in the Mie and Rayleigh channels: the particulate attenuated backscatter β_P and the attenuation coefficient K_L;
• ocean optical parameters, related to ocean optical properties and derived from the lidar-derived parameters: the diffuse attenuation coefficient K_d(355) and the particulate backscattering coefficient b_bp(355);
• biogeochemical parameters, derived from the optical parameters: the particulate organic carbon (POC), the phytoplankton carbon (C_phyto) and the coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM).

The prototype AOC product is generated over a set of regions of interest (English Channel, tropical gyres, polar ocean), and evaluated against available ground truth, other comparable remotely sensed products and biogeochemical model simulations.

Project partners

• NOVELTIS, France
• Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG), France: Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, Université de Lille, CNRS