The goal of the IOCS meeting is to foster exchange between the research community and space agency representatives. The aim of many of the splinter sessions or breakout workshops is to develop concrete outputs that represent a synthesis of what our community needs in order to carry out state-of-the-art research and applications using ocean colour remote sensing. Recommendations emerging from these sessions are the result of discussion and consensus within the session.
The following is a synthesis of all the recommendations or action items that have emerged from these discussions since the IOCS meeting began in 2013. Active recommendations are displayed by topic, and each shows who was selected to execute the recommendation (whether the space agencies, the community, or the IOCCG) and its current status. Recommendations deemed to be completed are listed in the Completed Recommendations list, regardless of topic.
Click here to view the full table of recommendations from all IOCS meetings.
Active IOCS Recommendations by Topic
Atmospheric Correction
| 2013.02.4 | Efforts should be made by space agencies to make the new techniques more visible and accessible, e.g., via inter-comparison activities, implementation in SeaDAS etc. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.02.8 | Aerosol altitude is an essential variable to compute atmospheric effects at ocean colour wavelengths, especially in the presence of absorbing aerosols, and efforts should be made to determine this variable in future ocean colour missions. Measuring NO2 is definitely needed to perform accurate atmospheric correction in the coastal zone | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.02.1 | Cloud screening should be linked to atmospheric correction | Community | Partial |
| 2013.02.2 | Absorption by hydrosols in the NIR needs to be determined for very turbid waters. Better bio-optical models are needed in the NIR. | Community | Partial |
| 2013.02.5 | Parallel processing lines with standard and improved schemes may help users understand advantages and limitations of individual techniques, define the quality of final products, and allow for continuity. | Agency | Partial |
| 2013.02.6 | Synergy between instruments/missions should be considered, in particular OLCI (visible NIR) and SLSTR (SWIR) (1b or 1c co-registered). | Agency | Partial |
| 2013.02.7 | New techniques suggest sensors should not saturate over Sun glint and clouds, and that it may not be necessary to tilt them, but strategy should keep continuity while allowing improvements based on gained knowledge. | Agency | Unmeasurable |
| 2013.02.9 | Aerosol model determination (size distribution, index of refraction) is useful to at least constrain the ill-posed inverse ocean-colour problem, but errors may be too large to compute the perturbing signal with sufficient accuracy, i.e., it is desirable to estimate the perturbing signal more directly. Yet aerosol information is required for studies of aerosol/ocean interactions (e.g., iron fertilization) | Agency | Unmeasurable |
| 2019.09.1 | Better understand the performance of existing algorithms with respect to their physical assumptions, modeling, and inversion techniques | Community | Partial |
| 2019.09.2 | Encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between the modeling, atmospheric and the OC communities: numerical models, UV, LIDAR and multi-angle polarimetry to constrain the atmospheric correction | Community | Partial |
| 2019.09.3 | Deriving uncertainties should be a requirement when developing algorithms. This includes characterizing the input L1b uncertainties. | Agency | Partial |
Climate & Carbon
| 2013.09.1 | Calculation of uncertainties, including bias, in the time series of ocean-colour products is vitally important. Space agencies should ensure resources are made available to support these developments. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2017.09.2 | Implement quasi / pre operational on open-ocean POC, coastal SPM | Agency | Partial |
Data & Datasets
| 2013.04.1 | Collaboratively identify and resolve bottlenecks to free and open exchanges of source data and software (satellite and in situ). | Community | Ongoing |
| 2013.04.2 | Space agencies should continue the pursuit and support of international multi-agency collaborations. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.04.4 | The user community should get together to discuss standardisation of metadata. | Community | Ongoing |
| 2013.04.5 | Space agencies/data providers should commit to providing global Level-3 composites of ocean colour climate variables to facilitate sensor intercomparison and global biogeochemical modeling and research. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.04.3 | Researchers should archive satellite data sets used in publications. The agencies are not responsible for keeping older versions once the data has been reprocessed. | Community | Unmeasurable |
| 2013.11.2 | Space agencies should continue to support the existing line of data processing, analysis and exploitation tools (i.e. SeaDAS, BEAM and ODESA), and continue them for future sensors. This should include further development as well as training of users. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.11.1 | All space agencies should adopt the netCDF4/CF format for their ocean-colour data. | Agency | Partial |
| 2019.01.1 | Develop and publish a community ‘open science’ statement to encourage making data, code, and software open and discoverable. | IOCCG | Unfulfilled |
| 2019.01.3 | Establish a code repository to exists as a live IOCCG report | IOCCG | Unfulfilled |
High Latitudes
| 2015.05.2 | Remote sensing observations (airborne or satellite platforms) at higher spatial resolution (<100 m) are needed to resolve the highly dynamic processes and strong bio-optical complexity of high latitude coastal waters | Agency | Partial |
| 2015.05.3 | Increase the number of remote sensing observations over polar seas include: the use of geosynchronous satellites with inclined orbit (or other orbits permitting longer integration times in polar seas such as elliptical), Lidar technology and other means of measurements to complement ocean colour remote sensing (airborne radiometers, gliders, drones, unmanned autonomous vehicles). | Agency | Unfulfilled |
| 2015.05.1 | A need to establish constituent-IOP relationships for the estimation of biogeochemical stocks | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2017.05.2 | More research is needed to understand discrepencies among Southern Ocean algorithms | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.05.3 | More In-situ data from non-summer months is needed | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.05.1 | an accurate top of atmosphere ocean surface reflectance spectrum at high solar angles is needed. | Community | Partial |
Lidar
| 2017.06.1 | Advocate for the enhanced version of MESCAL as the scenario that is the most interesting for doing new science (Lidar at 355 and 532 nm, fluorescence sensor, 3-m vertical resolution). | Community | Partial |
| 2023.09.1 | Develop coupled atmosphere-ocean simulators for lidar propagation (Hydrolight-like) freely available | Community | |
| 2023.09.2 | Develop open-source tools or codes for processing L1 and L2 CALIOP and ATLAS data freely available | Community | |
| 2023.09.3 | Make daily Ocean L1 and L2 CALIOP and ATLAS archive available, with a portal to easily view and download the data | Agency | |
| 2023.09.4 | Share current and past in-situ (shipborne, airborne, fixed platforms) lidar measurements | Community | |
| 2023.09.5 | Develop in-situ oceanic profiling lidar (Measurements up to the euphotic depth, Instruments to measure the back-scattering coefficient at 180°, Multi-wavelength : 355, 470, 532, 560 nm, Fluorescence profiles, Vertical resolution: ≤1 m, Temperature profiles) | Community | |
| 2023.09.6 | Develop ground-based network of profiling sensors to validate future ocean spaceborne lidar and passive OC missions | Community | |
| 2023.09.7 | Better coordination with the atmospheric community for lidar development, scientific objectives and field campaigns | Community | |
| 2023.09.8 | Ensure better training on lidar, e.g. session at conferences (Ocean Optics), lectures at the IOCCG Lectures Series and Maine Summer School on fundamentals of lidar: principles, data processing, practical exercises to process the lidar data, courses on the components of a lidar: optics, electronics | Community | |
| 2023.09.9 | Endorsement from the OC Community (agencies, IOCCG, scientists, etc.) on space-borne oceanic profiling lidar (ocean capabilities of CALIGOLA space mission) | Community |
New Technologies
| 2019.07.1 | Standardize VC for new radiometric platforms | Community | Ongoing |
| 2019.07.2 | Better spectral angle and angular scattering instrument and approaches | Community | Partial |
| 2019.07.3 | Cube-sat and pseudo satellites for low-cost demonstration mission | Community | Ongoing |
Optically Complex Waters
| 2017.04.8 | Measure mass-specific Inherent Optical Properties (IOPs) for algorithm development | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2017.04.1 | Identify potential new validation sites and set up hyperspectral AERONET/AERONET-OC stations in other coastal and inland water bodies | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.04.5 | Algorithms should be developed globally but applied locally | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.04.7 | Need for standardization of procedures for in situ data collection in inland waters | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.04.10 | Promote consistency in pre- and post-launch sensor calibration across multiple missions and multiple space agencies to enable robust blending of data products from a constellation of satellites. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2017.04.11 | The science community needs to better understand the needs of the management community and needs to showcase what products can be provided. The level of uncertainty that can be accepted needs to be better defined | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.04.2 | Encourage researchers to collect optical properties of aerosols/trace gases together with bio-optical data and share the data on public databases such as SeaBASS and Limnades | Community | Unmeasurable |
| 2017.04.3 | Apply spectral unmixing approaches to correct for adjacency effects from adjacent land/ice. | Community | Unmeasurable |
| 2017.04.4 | Explore glint mitigation strategies such as tilting the sensor or shifting the orbits to maximize the utility of satellite observations; also explore beneficial uses of sun-glint signal | Community | Unmeasurable |
| 2017.04.9 | Quantitative studies evaluating the impact of various spatial resolutions on retrievals are needed in order to establish reasonable limits on desired spatial resolution | Community | Unmeasurable |
| 2017.04.12 | Building trust with the management community will require documented protocols, validation efforts and rigorous QA/QC | Community | Unmeasurable |
| 2017.07.2 | Develop an atmospheric correction prototype processor for coastal and inland waters. | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.07.3 | Develop a prototype processor that will deliver accurate transitions between open ocean, coastal waters and inland waters | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.07.4 | Develop community guidance on the standardization of statistical metrics to assess algorithm performance | Community | Ongoing |
| 2019.04.2 | Develop capacities, such as numerical tools for Lidar simulation or “super sites”, to obtain comprehensive and high-quality data to improve our understanding of “complex” waters | Community | Partial |
| 2019.04.1 | Promote the application of IOPs, as it is the first-order inversion products from Rrs | Community | Unmeasurable |
Phytoplankton Functional Types
| 2013.10.1 | Agencies should support PFT algorithm development, validation and intercomparisons as well as activities to merge different techniques and multi-mission data sets, in order to develop a new “standard product” of ocean colour. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.10.2 | The development of PFT methods (including radiative transfer modelling to hyperspectral data sets) should be supported with relevant in situ measurements from ships, gliders and buoys. | Community | Ongoing |
| 2013.10.3 | Simultaneous collection of in situ HPLC pigments, other PFT parameters which identify size, groups and functions (e.g. size-fractionated Chla, particle size distribution etc.) and optical data are essential for validating PFTs from current and upcoming satellite missions. | Community | Ongoing |
| 2013.10.4 | The validation of HPLC-PFT data sets should be supported by all agencies: a single method may not be globally applicable. | Agency | Partial |
| 2013.10.5 | Optical and pigment methods used to discriminate PFTs should be linked for a better understanding of actual community structure using imaging flow cytometry and genetics. Better methods to allocate cellular carbon across the PFT categories should be defined. | Community | Partial |
| 2015.01.2 | Investment in additional phytoplankton composition observations | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2015.01.6 | Enhanced efforts of algorithm development on regional scales surrounding prioritized areas of user needs | Community | Ongoing |
| 2015.01.1 | Coordination of existing time series sites with AOPs, IOPs, and phytoplankton composition | Community | Partial |
| 2015.01.3 | Develop unified protocols and data repository for phytoplankton composition observations | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2015.01.4 | Coordinate use of identical independent datasets in the development and validation of algorithms | Community | Unfulfilled |
Protocols & Training
| 2013.06.3 | Protocols | Participants agreed on the following workshops to revise the protocols (ranked highest to lowest): IOPs, AOPs, Particle Sizes, Carbon Stocks and rates, Bio-fouling and depoyment | Community | Partial |
| 2013.07.5 | Training | Outreach activities aimed at the policy/decision making level | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2017.08.2 | Protocols | SeaBASS should add a flag to indicate whether data is validation quality, or had been compromised in some way to make it useful, but not of sufficient quality for validation. | Agency | Ongoing |
Research to Operations
| 2013.05.1 | The quality of operational ocean colour data is of critical importance. Operational agencies should develop and maintain infrastructure and scientific and technical activities to ensure that the accuracy and long-term stability requirements are met globally and across regions. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.05.5 | Provide open source modular software that matches the operational processor and that can be run in batch mode on local user computers; preferably multi-mission software. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.05.7 | Expand the core product suite; keep algorithms state-of-the-art. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.05.8 | Consolidate ocean colour requirements for services, ecosystem and management applications. | Agency | Partial |
| 2019.06.1 | Users want single consistent and stable time series, long-term to NRT, merged from multiple sensors, as well as anomaly products | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2019.06.2 | Need to actively engage with users through workshops and trainings | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2019.06.3 | IOCCG could extend its tasks to coordinate above (user engagement) | IOCCG | Ongoing |
Resolution - spectral, spatial, temporal
| 2013.03.2 | Geostationary | Organize geostationary ocean colour radiometry sessions at future meetings (IOCS, Ocean Optics, AGU, EGU, etc.) | Community | Partial |
| 2013.03.3 | Geostationary | Generate geostationary articles in various publications (IOCCG newsletter, EOS, peer-review articles, etc.) | Community | Partial |
| 2015.02.1 | Geostationary | Form a new IOCCG Geostationary WG that will do below | IOCCG | Unfulfilled |
| 2015.02.2 | Geostationary | Perform sensitivity studies to examine the accuracy of retrievals at large sensor and solar zenith angles | Community | Partial |
| 2015.02.3 | Geostationary | Optimize NASA’s OC aerosol models for coastal regions | Community | Partial |
| 2015.02.4 | Geostationary | Develop methods to detect different types of absorbing aerosols (mineral dust, black carbon, industrial pollutants, continental aerosols) | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2015.02.5 | Geostationary | Explore the possibility of using aerosol transport models such as GOCART to identify and correct for different types of aerosols | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2015.02.6 | Geostationary | Follow the expected improvements in atmospheric corrections algorithms, for example, developments by the NASA PACE science team | Community | Partial |
| 2015.06.1 | High Resolution | The ocean colour community should be better represented at the formulation stage of high spatial resolution missions (Landsat-10+ and Sentinel-2E+) | Agency | Partial |
| 2015.07.1 | Hyperspectral | The community must prioritize needs through a process of open dialog. Implementation of new product algorithms will be multi-staged, involving modeling, experimentation, validation, and peer-review. | Community | Partial |
| 2015.07.4 | Hyperspectral | it is essential to have a standard spectral library for specific absorption, backscatter for optical constituents of the water column and reflectance spectra for benthic and palustrine cover. | Community | Partial |
| 2017.01.1 | Hyperspectral | Work is required in order to fully catalogue metrics of performance when using hyperspectral data, including a characterization of the implications associated with a lack of spectral band coverage and radiometric sensitivity, and robust error estimates from higher order products, such as PFTs. | Community | Partial |
| 2017.01.2 | Hyperspectral | establish a framework for clear traceability of errors | Community | Partial |
| 2017.01.4 | Hyperspectral | improve communication between data providers and users | Community | Partial |
| 2017.01.5 | Hyperspectral | Continue to mature the development and curation of hyperspectral optical databases and products (e.g. PFTs) for use in algorithm development.. | Community | Partial |
| 2017.01.6 | Hyperspectral | Ocean scientists to engage more with atmospheric scientists, and potentially abandon a “one-size-fits-all” approach to AC. | Community | Partial |
| 2017.01.7 | Hyperspectral | Need to create more mature end-user requirements to help drive sensor design, which, in turn, may require an investment in the science and the creative exploitation of hyperspectral data capabilities (e.g. machine learning) | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.02.1 | Trichodesmium | Need to understand the effects of fractal behavior of slicks by synoptically sampling from the sub-meter to the 1-km scales | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.02.2 | Trichodesmium | Need for hyperspectral above-water reflectance data for both validating tricho algorithms but also to improve the atmospheric correction techniques | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2017.02.3 | Trichodesmium | Need to determine appropriate ground-truthing measurements | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.02.4 | Trichodesmium | Need to have an appropriate operational (i.e. not a scene-by-scene approach) atmospheric correction for surface slicks, appropriate spectral bands to resolve phycoerythrin and spatial resolution to detect slicks | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.02.5 | Trichodesmium | Use geostationary satellites to help resolve temporal variations of biomass (could be key for models) | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2019.02.1 | Phytoplankton from Hyperspectral | Need for promoting, standardizing automated imaging particle counters and flow cytometry to allow routine phytoplankton taxonomy resolving observations & key community metric products in addition to IOP, AOP & HPLC. | Community | Partial |
| 2019.02.2 | Phytoplankton from Hyperspectral | Improve the translation of phytoplankton composition information from the different in-situ data source metrics into the IOP signal, primarily through the use of IOP models. | Community | Partial |
| 2019.02.3 | Phytoplankton from Hyperspectral | Enhance capabilities of phytoplankton composition IOP measurements especially on the specific backscattering properties spectral slope, VSF, chi factors; recognizing shape/structure beyond sphere) | Community | Partial |
| 2019.02.4 | Phytoplankton from Hyperspectral | Need to have an appropriate operational (i.e. not a scene-by-scene approach) atmospheric correction for surface slicks, appropriate spectral bands to resolve phycoerythrin and spatial resolution to detect slicks | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2019.02.5 | Phytoplankton from Hyperspectral | Geostationary satellites could resolve temporal variations of biomass and this maybe the key for models | Community | Ongoing |
| 2019.03.1 | High Temporal/Spatial Resolution Applications | A constellation of ~30-m resolution with land-sat radiometric performance and OLCI-like spectral coverage would serve a wide range of applications | Agency | Partial |
| 2019.03.2 | High Temporal/Spatial Resolution Applications | Space agencies should coordinate mission formulations, and pre-launch calibration to minimize differences in products | Agency | Partial |
Sensor Calibration
| 2013.12.1 | Calibration teams from each of the current and future ocean-colour sensor are encouraged to join the international collaborative effort GSICS (Global Space-based Intercalibration System) to help intercalibrate TOA radiances for different low Earth orbit sensors. | Community | Ongoing |
| 2015.09.1 | The interpretation of long-term trends in ocean color products should consider the calibration uncertainty in any assessment | Community | Partial |
| 2019.08.3 | Gain calibration trends should not contain discontinuities that are not clearly supported by calibration measurements | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2019.08.2 | Every mission should evaluate if for a newly launched sensor, a tandem flight is possible to evaluate calibration consistency | Agency | Partial |
System Vicarious Calibration
| 2013.08.1 | The vicarious calibration of VIS bands with respect to NIR bands, with the application of highly accurate in situ VIS data, should be considered for the forthcoming missions. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.08.2 | The importance of involving National Reference Laboratories in the characterization of field radiometers and SI traceability of measurements is essential. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.08.3 | The analysis of legacy constraints for in situ measurements and sites supporting system vicarious calibration suggests that spatial homogeneity of the measurement site(s) is an essential requirement. The constraint on the aerosol optical thickness lower than 0.1 in the visible could be likely “relaxed” as long as the atmospheric conditions are well characterized. It is additionally recommended that the availability of supplementary atmospheric measurements at the vicarious measurement site(s) (e.g., vertical characterizations of the atmospheric components) are of potential aid to system vicarious calibration. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.08.4 | The use of commercial systems to support system vicarious calibration imposes the generation of in situ traceable measurements through fully characterized hyperspectral systems. This requires comprehensive characterizations of commercial hyperspectral systems whose performances often need thorough verification. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2013.08.5 | The standardization of system vicarious calibration is a necessary strategy for the generation of CDRs from multiple satellite instruments. Current system vicarious calibration exercises involving NASA and ESA sensors appear to indicate that the lack of standardization between institutions (not only for the system vicarious calibration process) may lead to significant differences in derived satellite data products not compatible with the creation of CDRs from independent missions. However, standardization using current technologies should consider that forthcoming advanced systems like PACE may benefit from additional measurement capabilities (e.g., polarization) with respect to current space sensors. | Agency | Ongoing |
| 2017.03.1 | Main priority for operational SVC is to ensure sustainable resources (staff, knowledge and infrastructure) to build long-term data series over multi-mission lifetime | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.03.2 | Since SVC is today only justified for open-ocean clear-waters we need a way to clearly illustrate this need for a SVC, through a self-explanatory image intended to decision-makers | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.03.4 | Aerosols need to be characterized and monitored at the SVC site measurements need | Community | Ongoing |
| 2017.03.5 | The monograph in preparation (by the IOCCG SVC WG) should recommend the agencies to further fund the required development of SVC infrastructures. | IOCCG | Ongoing |
| 2017.03.3 | it was recommended to not write definitive numbers in public documents when they cannot be perfectly justified. | Community | Unmeasurable |
| 2019.05.2 | Develop white paper to try to achieve agreement | Community | Unfulfilled |
| 2019.05.1 | Agree on how to define protocols for some aspects of matching data for analysis (i.e. box size, time lag) | Community | Unfulfilled |
Uncertainties
| 2015.03.2 | The community needs to engage in more discussion regarding temporal and spatial variability in uncertainty | Community | Ongoing |
| 2015.03.3 | The community should leverage off of uncertainty studies conducted in other fields. Closure studies common to atmospheric sciences were given as an example. | Community | Ongoing |
| 2015.03.5 | Developers of propagation of uncertainty approaches should work to include the inherent algorithm uncertainty | Community | Ongoing |
| 2015.03.6 | More work be done to compare and understand the pros and cons of the various methods that are being developed for the evaluation of uncertainties associated with ocean colour products | Community | Ongoing |
| 2015.03.7 | The community further explore propagating uncertainties from Level-2 scenes to Level-3 composites. | Community | Ongoing |
| 2015.03.4 | As the space agencies are looking at propagating uncertainties from at-sensor radiometry to Rrs uncertainties, additional exploration of propagating Rrs uncertainties into bio-optical algorithms is recommended. Likewise, further exploration of propagating in situ measurement uncertainties into bio-optical algorithms is also recommended. | Community | Partial |
Water Quality
| 2015.04.2 | Continued training and enhanced engagement with end users are recommended | IOCCG | Partial |
| 2015.04.3 | Need to explore the trade-off between data quality and user needs, in particular to address issues such as usability vs. accuracy and validity. | IOCCG | Partial |
| 2015.04.4 | Future sensors such as the Landsat and Sentinel 2 series should incorporate additional narrow spectral channels to enable accurate observations of chlorophyll and cyanobacterial pigments concentrations. | Agency | Partial |
| 2015.04.1 | End users provide examples of when less accurate data is better than no data. | Community | Unfulfilled |
Closed Recommendations
| 2013.02.3 | Planned sensors should complement spectral measurements from UV to SWIR with multi-angular and multi-polarized instruments | Agency | PACE will have multi-angular and multi-polarized instruments; SGLI has 380nm channel and 2-channel (red, NIR) polarimetry (0,+60,-60) |
| 2013.03.1 | Broader distribution and application of GOCI data is recommended to demonstrate the utility of geostationary ocean colour radiometry data. | Agency | Web-based data service (http://kosc.kiost.ac.kr) open access for research/public use |
| 2013.05.2 | Assure data continuity and sustainability of product delivery. Distribute NRT data as well as consistent long-term time series of ocean colour observations. | Agency | Both NRT and standard products are produced. |
| 2013.05.3 | Produce and distribute Level-3 data. | Agency | Completed for JAXA: Level-3 of SGLI are produced and distribute freely. |
| 2013.04.1 | When using data from MERMAID (MERIS Matchup In-situ Database) in publications, the Principal Investigators of in situ data should always be contacted for approval, be offered co-authorship and acknowledged. | Community | In general IOCCG recommends that data providers make their data openly available, and able to be easily referenced. |
| 2013.05.4 | Ensure that operational capabilities are achieved soon after launch and enable early data access to marine service and cal/val users, even if the data are not yet well calibrated. | Agency | Completed for JAXA: we had distributed to data for PIs within 1-year, and to the public after 1 year. |
| 2013.05.6 | Provide all data online for downloading (instead of a limited rolling archive). | Agency | Completed for JAXA all data is available through both GUI and SFTP. |
| 2013.05.9 | Create a framework within which the wider international community can collaborate through permanent working groups on specific topics identified by the IOCCG/IOCS meeting and the stakeholder community. | IOCCG | Scope of IOCCG Task Forces and OCR-VC cover and coordinate on a more permanent basis |
| 2013.06.1 | In situ measurement protocols should not be revised by a single investigator but through an international community effort spanning multiple universities and space agencies e.g. under the IOCCG umbrella. | IOCCG | IOCCG Protocol documents |
| 2013.06.2 | Some support for protocol development should be secured from various agencies (NASA, ESA, EUMESAT, etc.). | IOCCG | IOCCG now supports the development of Protocol documents |
| 2013.07.1 | More online / distance resources are required. | IOCCG | All SLS lectures are recorded and available online. IOCCG Support for many online trainings, etc. since 2013 |
| 2013.07.2 | Provide training on software and tools to support use of VIIRS and OLCI data, as well as other new missions | Agency | EUMETSAT has dedicated significant training resources to this. |
| 2013.07.3 | EUMETSAT’s role in training may be best focused on the operational users and potentially those involved in the management / decision making processes. | Agency | |
| 2013.07.4 | Use Wikipedia for outreach and information provision to provide more information on ocean colour and ocean-colour training. | Community | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_color |
| 2013.07.6 | Explore the value, and practicalities of competencies and certification | IOCCG | Certificates given for advanced training. IOCCG not a certifying body, so Universities are best for this. |
| 2013.08.6 | Results from this Splinter Session should be the start for additional international actions aiming at detailing specific requirements and methods for System Vicarious Calibration of new missions like PACE and Sentinel-3. | Agency | Session fed into OC-SVC TF |
| 2013.09.2 | Interactions between climate modellers and ocean-colour scientists are essential to ensure that the ocean-colour time-series and models are appropriately used in describing and understanding the optical properties and signatures within the oceans. | IOCCG | IOCCG Report 19 (2020) |
| 2013.11.3 | Space agencies should support large volume, batch data access and download (e.g., through established means such as ftp/http), as well as more targeted access through protocols such as THREDDS/OpenDAP. | Agency | Completed for JAXA: SGLI can be accessed by SFTP and some Level-3 products are on GEE. |
| 2013.11.4 | Regarding data distribution, the ocean-colour community is requested to provide concrete and justified requirements to EUMETSAT so that the distribution of Sentinel 3 data through EUMETCAST can be properly dimensioned. | Community | EUMETSAT holds regular workshops to best identify and serve the community’s need |
| 2013.12.2 | A permanent calibration task force should be established to share expertise and information on instrument calibration and characterization. It should be supported by space agencies and should have close interaction with the extended ocean-colour community. It could be established either under the CEOS-IVOS framework, or the IOCCG/INSITU-OCR. | IOCCG | |
| 2015.01.5 | Exploit current hyperspectral satellite data as synergistic use to multispectral satellite data | Community | See Losa et al. (2017), but certainly this should be continued. |
| 2015.03.1 | Establish permanent IOCCG WG on uncertainities. | IOCCG | See IOCCG Report 18 (2019) |
| 2015.05.4 | A rapid action to increase the annual period of observation would be to increase the sun angle threshold (to 75° instead of 70° currently used) in processing software | Agency | Completed for JAXA: SGLI Level-2 data include sun zenith angle more than 75 deg. |
| 2015.07.2 | Establish working group to coordinate available airborne hyperspectral datasets | IOCCG | Hyperspectral TF now in place for such on-going needs. This may change with PACE-PAX. SBG has a number of such datasets, but no organized working group is coordinating airborne aquatic hyperspectral data collection, nor is there a central repository for such data. |
| 2015.07.3 | Utilize existing data to demonstrate the potential use of hyperspectral information. | Community | Part of PACE justification as well as a variety of papers published. This effort, however, is still ongoing as such algoithms will be applied in coastal and inland regions by missions such as SBG or GLIMR. |
| 2015.10.1 | There is a clear need for a centralized access (or information) point for BGC-Argo data | Community | https://biogeochemical-argo.org/data-access.php |
| 2017.01.3 | increase the utilization of current hyperspectral satellite data as a test bed (SCIAMACHY, HICO, etc.) | Community | Efforts are ongoing – hyperspectral data for coastal applications have been started to be exploited in last 5 years, TROPOMI/S5P provides possibility for clearer assessment of uncertainties in ocean colour retrievals than SCIAMACHY (e.g., Oelker et al. FMARS 2022). New data are now available from EMIT, PRISMA, EnMAP and DESIS, including inland or coastal waters. |
| 2017.04.13 | Citizen science measures should be encouraged for generating in situ data for product validation | Community | Citizen science initiatives are on the increase and welcome within the community. |
| 2017.04.6 | Need more in situ data in local water bodies; data sharing and data publication should be encouraged | Community | A global in situ radiometric dataset (GLORIA with N > 7000 samples) has been released to support future algorithm advancements. GLORIA: The GLObal Reflectance community dataset for Imaging and optical sensing of Aquatic environments. There are also an inventory of databases linked from GEO AquaWatch. |
| 2017.07.1 | Set-up a funded OCR-VC working group with specific deliverables | IOCCG | OCR-VC set up |
| 2017.07.5 | Develop a strategy to inform the community of best practices for performance assessment of algorithms. | Community | IOCCG Report 18, publications and the Oceans Best Practices Repository |
| 2017.08.1 | The current best practices for in-water measurements are not described and need to be detailed. | Community | We worked on a protocol document that detailed the in-water measurement practices |
| 2017.09.1 | Establish an IOCCG Task Force on Carbon | IOCCG | Oceasn Carbon Task Force established. |
| 2017.09.2 | Develop user engagement and training | Community | See for example, the ocean carbon from space workshop held under CEOS umbrella last year. |
| 2019.01.2 | Encourage international adoption of ‘open science’ policies and open source technologies through existing training and education instances | IOCCG | Many discussions within the IOCCG have been occuring; many member agencies have adopted Open Source Science policies and training initiatives underway in support of this effort (e.g., EUMETSAT Copernicus trainings, NASA TOPS and ARSET programs, etc) |
| 2019.08.1 | Every mission should evaluate if lunar observations can be acquired at least infrequently. | Agency |