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 that have emerged from these discussions since the IOCS meeting began in 2013. Recommendations are displayed by topic. Each recommendation shows who was selected to execute the recommendation (the space agencies, the community, or the IOCCG) and whether the recommendation was acknowledged and actioned by the executor (actioned), or is still open for action (open).
IOCS Recommendations by Topic
Atmospheric Correction
| 2013.02.1 | Cloud screening should be linked to atmospheric correction | Community | Actioned | Some studies are in development to better detect clouds for OCLI. ACIX-II and CMIX round-robin comparison for Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8; Cloud screening is included in the AC module for SGLI |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 2013.02.3 | Planned sensors should complement spectral measurements from UV to SWIR with multi-angular and multi-polarized instruments | Agency | Actioned | PACE will have multi-angular and multi-polarized instruments; SGLI has 380nm channel and 2-channel (red, NIR) polarimetry (0,+60,-60) |
| 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 | Actioned | NASA is committed to supporting Open Science (e.g. TOPS. https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/transform-to-open-science) as well as Open-source Science: https://science.nasa.gov/open-science-overview; SGLI Level-3 data are copied to GEE. JAXA and SGLI PIs are workng on the intercomparison and implementation to the common system. ESA: International ACIX and CMIX collaborative initiatives have been implemented (2016-2017) to inter-compare a set of atmospheric correction (AC) and cloud masking (CM) algorithms for high-spatial resolution optical sensors. |
| 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 | Actioned | JAXA: Some products are made by research systems but the processing volume is limited due to the resources. |
| 2013.02.6 | Synergy between instruments/missions should be considered, in particular OLCI (visible NIR) and SLSTR (SWIR) (1b or 1c co-registered). | Agency | Actioned | JAXA: Cross calibration among SGLI, AHI, MODIS etc. has been conducted for the synthetic use. EUMETSAT has now also started work on this. |
| 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 | Actioned | Will be investigated for future JAXA missions |
| 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 | Actioned | This has now been done with the PACE mission. Aerosol model data assimilating EarthCARE will be available in the future. |
| 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 | Actioned | No progress made in the OC processing. But in the atmospheric aerosol retrievals, an optimal estimation of aerosol using predicted aerosol properties from the assilimation model has been operated. |
| 2019.09.1 | Better understand the performance of existing algorithms with respect to their physical assumptions, modeling, and inversion techniques | Community | Actioned | Some work has been done in ACIX-II for L8 and S2 and in IOCCG WG on AC for turbid waters |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 2019.09.3 | Deriving uncertainties should be a requirement when developing algorithms. This includes characterizing the input L1b uncertainties. | Agency | Actioned | Some algorithms consider this, but not all. Consideration for future missions as well. Noted by agencies in the IOCCG-28 Meeting. |
Biodiversity, including Phytoplankton Functional Types (PFT)
| 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 | Actioned | CMEMS has PFT as standard product; others have invested in this. SGLI project has a PI team investigating the theme. ESA supported the S5p-OC project (2019-2022) which included the development of PFT algorithm |
| 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 | Actioned | A lot of campaigns took place since 2013 and a lot of in-situ PFT data collections have been published, individually and also as combined data sets; still mainly HPLC |
| 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 | Actioned | Has been emphasized in many campaigns: EXPORT, NAMES, BOSSOULE, FRAM, … must be continued |
| 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 | Actioned | Individual efforts; SGLI project partially supports PIs measurements. Agencies continue to support HPLC datasets. |
| 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 | Actioned | A lot improvements have been made – adding imaging flow cytometry, I think not much progress has made by including genetic information. |
| 2015.01.1 | Coordination of existing time series sites with AOPs, IOPs, and phytoplankton composition | Community | Actioned | Has been enhanced still needs further expansion. |
| 2015.01.2 | Investment in additional phytoplankton composition observations | Agency | Actioned | A lot of efforts have been taken |
| 2015.01.3 | Develop unified protocols and data repository for phytoplankton composition observations | Community | Actioned | Protocols have focused on the core data: PP, AOP, IOP – HPLC-PFT is now approved by IOCCG and will be developed. |
| 2015.01.4 | Coordinate use of identical independent datasets in the development and validation of algorithms | Community | Actioned | Kostadinov et al. 2017 and Mouw et al. 2017. No others since then. |
| 2015.01.5 | Exploit current hyperspectral satellite data as synergistic use to multispectral satellite data | Community | Actioned | See Losa et al. (2017), but certainly this should be continued. |
| 2015.01.6 | Enhanced efforts of algorithm development on regional scales surrounding prioritized areas of user needs | Community | Actioned | See e.g. Vishnu et al. 2022 |
| 2023.07.1 | Review and gap analysis of sensors/products available to monitor aquatic biodiversity, and translation into indicators relevant for the scientific community and the Convention for Biodiversity/ Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 1.5 years. Paper should serve as basis for roadmap for space agencies to support over the next 5 years. | Community | Actioned | Ongoing, plan in place to deliver in the short term-2026 |
| 2023.07.2 | Space agencies should support cross-agency work to engage with stakeholders to refine needs/requirements (including spatial, vertical and temporal resolution) for essential biodiversity variables (EBV) and essential ocean variables (EOV) | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2023.07.3 | Space agencies and the community should ensure mission continuity and climate relevant datasets for biodiversity | Agency | Actioned | ESA has funded PHYTO-CCI for phytoplankton. Missing coastal pelagic phytoplankton and seabed habitats |
| 2025.03.01 | Promote development of satellite Earth Observation with higher spatial resolution (~ 2-5m) and revisit frequency, with good signal-to-noise and more spectral bands in the long term (constellation?) and lidar | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.02 | Specialists on atmospheric correction (with support from space agencies) to consider the atmospheric-bottom reflectance challenge in the medium term (~5 y). | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.03 | Support (within 5 y) research to upscale from field, drone, airborne data to satellite, and differentiate species distribution. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.04 | Propose IOCCG Working Group to aggregate in situ coastal habitat datasets into repositories along with satellite-derived labelled data for machine learning training within 1-2 years. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.05 | Better understand the management requirements for marine biodiversity metrics from satellite Earth Observation, educate managers, and communicate uncertainty within 1-2 years | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.06 | Support GLIMR and/or studies with other geostationary sensors already deployed to investigate high frequency dependence of plankton diversity within ~5 years. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.07 | Complement passive remote sensing with active and other methods for vertical extension of ocean colour, noting the challenge of extending vertically over the continental shelf, where BGC-Argo floats do not currently operate (within >10 years) | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.08 | Support (within ~5y) regional algorithm development and in situ data collection in coastal areas in the presence of different levels of other optically active substances. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.09 | Support (within ~5 years) the collocation of high spatial resolution in situ (as a minimum hyperspectral Rrs) and laboratory optical data for algorithm development. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.03.10 | Promote adoption of EBV Framework through an IOCCG WG/TF within 1-2 years (e.g. through workshops). | IOCCG | OPEN |
Climate & Carbon
| 2017.09.1 | Establish an IOCCG Task Force on Carbon | IOCCG | Actioned | Ocean Carbon Task Force established in 2023 |
| 2017.09.2 | Implement quasi / pre operational Rrs products on open-ocean POC, coastal SPM with clear indication of uncertainty. | Agency | Actioned | Pre-operational POC products are available. Coastal SPM pre-operational product provided by NOAA and ESA |
| 2017.09.3 | Develop user engagement and training | Community | Actioned | See for example, the ocean carbon from space workshop held under CEOS umbrella last year. |
| 2023.04.1 | The community should develop an open-access database of POC and DOC for inland and coastal waters | Community | Actioned | Open-access databases already exist. IOCCG suggests collating and adding POC and DOC data for inland and coastal waters to existing community databases, such as SeaBASS. |
| 2025.08.01 | Resolve carbon pools and fluxes at the regional scale across key environments (within 1-5 yrs) using integrated observations, models and synthesis approaches. Ocean carbon budget assessments should explicitly include Blue Carbon components (e.g., mangroves, seagrasses, salt marshes). | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.08.02 | Develop and validate tools to detect change and rate of change (within 1-5 yrs), enabling ID of potential tipping points. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.08.03 | Support efforts to generate robust evidence on impact and effectiveness of marine Carbon Dioxide removal (mCDR) within 1-5 yrs. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.08.04 | Continue to maintain and improve the accuracy and stability of primary observables needed for ocean carbon research by sustaining robust cal/val activities and implementing advances in atmospheric correction within 10-20 yrs. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.08.05 | Promote (within 1-5 yrs) inclusion of aquatic carbon from space in existing and new training activities. | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.08.06 | Assess and address the latency between science and policy (through a guidance document), including evaluating the uptake of key ocean carbon research information in decision-making. The use of ‘knowledge brokers’ or knowledge hubs should be considered to bridge the gap between science and policy. | IOCCG | OPEN |
Data & Datasets (including blended times series)
| 2013.04.1 | Collaboratively identify and resolve bottlenecks to free and open exchanges of source data and software (satellite and in situ). | Community | Actioned | Agencies within IOCCG and CEOS are actively working to make their data open and available, and progress has been made in this regard. |
| 2013.04.2 | Space agencies should continue the pursuit and support of international multi-agency collaborations. | Agency | Actioned | Agencies continue this through bilateral agreements, and under CEOS and IOCCG |
| 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 | |
| 2013.04.4 | The user community should get together to discuss standardisation of metadata. | Community | Actioned | |
| 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 | Actioned | JAXA’a Level-3 of SGLI are produced and distribute freely. NASA Ocean Color Level-3 Browser doing the same, etc. |
| 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 | Actioned | IOCCG Report 19 (2020) |
| 2013.11.1 | All space agencies should adopt the netCDF4/CF format for their ocean-colour data. | Agency | Actioned | Some agencies already use NETCDF. SGLI is by HDF5 (readable by NC4 routines) and some data sets are distributed by NC4. |
| 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 | Actioned | SGLI collaborates with SeaDAS. Training is available. |
| 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 | Actioned | 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 | Actioned | EUMETSAT holds regular workshops to best identify and serve the community’s need |
| 2015.10.1 | There is a clear need for a centralized access (or information) point for BGC-Argo data | Community | Actioned | https://biogeochemical-argo.org/data-access.php |
| 2019.01.1 | Develop and publish a community ‘open science’ statement to encourage making data, code, and software open and discoverable. | IOCCG | Actioned | The community and agencies have generally moved towards open data and open science policies, and all agencies present are committed to open science. |
| 2019.01.2 | Encourage international adoption of ‘open science’ policies and open source technologies through existing training and education instances | IOCCG | Actioned | 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) |
| 2019.01.3 | Establish a code repository to exists as a live IOCCG report | IOCCG | Actioned | Efforts were initially made to collect, publish, and share examples of Open Source Science analysis code and software deliverables via GitHub and other community resource forums. Open source code repositores are published in the software section on the IOCCG website. |
| 2023.01.3 | Space agencies are requested to review and expand the use of FAIR and open source standards in their commissioning processes to promote more open data and software. | Agency | Actioned | Discussed at IOCCG-28. space agencies emphasize traceability and FAIR data practices and code that can legally be made available is available. ioccg.org/resources/software/ |
| 2023.08.1 | The community needs to conduct more research to identify all sources of discrepancies in merged datasets (beyond time and space, including geometry and other factors) and to quantify and correct them. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2023.08.2 | The community needs to improve description of continuity metrics including reporting of possible extremes (tails), possibly using Probability Density Functions. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2023.08.4 | The community and IOCCG need to consider revising/updating the 2006 IOCCG report on data merging. | IOCCG, Community | Actioned | new IOCCG Task Force on LTTS formed to address this topic |
| 2023.08.5 | Space agencies should advocate for mission design to ensure backwards compatibility to improve confidence in derived trends and ensure overlap between missions. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.01 | Develop one unified, blended long-term ocean-colour record that supports optional regional adjustments where required by physics and optics, while avoiding multiple competing global products. Regional tuning should be documented, traceable, and applied only where justified, without forcing artificial consistency across regions. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.02 | Establish explicit, variable-specific climate-quality criteria, including uncertainty thresholds that are demonstrably smaller than the trends being investigated. Define minimum record lengths required for robust trend detection (e.g., 35 years for chlorophyll), recognizing that requirements differ by variable and application. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.03 | Ensure users can access intermediate products (e.g., pre-SVC, sensor-specific fields) alongside merged products, enabling users to apply application-specific uncertainty tolerances, regional analyses, or alternative merging strategies where appropriate. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.04 | Establish and sustain coordinated local-regional-global networks for calibration, validation, and processing, building on existing international frameworks. Support shared investments in calibration sites, matchup databases, processing tools, and documentation to ensure long-term continuity. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.05 | Address gaps in global in situ coverage, particularly in under-sampled regions (e.g., high latitudes, monsoonal systems, optically complex coastal waters). Explicitly quantify and document regions where in situ uncertainty exceeds satellite uncertainty, and incorporate this information into validation and uncertainty frameworks. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.06 | Maintain traceable cross-calibration chains across missions, including assessment of gaps in geostationary coverage. Explicitly account for site-to-site variability in SVC gains in merged products rather than relying on indiscriminate averaging, and document how SVC differences are handled. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.07 | Design merging frameworks that explicitly accommodate different numbers of contributing sensors (e.g., two-sensor versus multi-sensor merges). Provide metadata indicating which missions contribute at each time step, and implement safeguards to avoid regional artifacts caused by gap-filling under aerosols, dust, or persistent cloud cover. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.08 | Develop community guidance on acceptable data gaps and compositing windows (e.g., daily versus 7-day products), recognizing that tolerance for gaps varies across climate, ecosystem, and operational applications. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.09 | Encourage innovation using AI/ML while requiring that such methods be traceable, physics-aware, and uncertainty-quantified. Ensure AI-based approaches do not introduce spurious or non-physical features, mask real variability, or create false temporal continuity in long-term records. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.10.10 | Deliver pixel-level uncertainty estimates alongside methods for deriving regional and ensemble uncertainties, recognizing that aggregation reduces random error. Provide uncertainty PDFs or ensemble-based representations to characterize extreme behavior (tails), and document impacts of data gaps or regional data-sharing constraints on uncertainty. | Agency | OPEN |
High Latitudes
| 2015.05.1 | A need to establish constituent-IOP relationships for the estimation of biogeochemical stocks | Community | OPEN | |
| 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 | OPEN | |
| 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 | OPEN | CSA had this under consideration. |
| 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 | Actioned | Completed for JAXA: SGLI Level-2 data include sun zenith angle more than 75 deg. |
| 2017.05.1 | an accurate top of atmosphere ocean surface reflectance spectrum at high solar angles is needed. | Community | Actioned | GM: reasonably constrained with multiple visible missions and strong effort to get top of atmosphere signals. With PACE and Japan’s GCOM SGLI there will be reflectance to 380 nm that can help with separating CDOM, detritus and mycosporine amino acids. There is a need I think to try to push the atmospheric correction to larger solar zenith angles (e.g. August and April, if possible) |
| 2017.05.2 | More research is needed to understand discrepencies among Southern Ocean algorithms | Community | Actioned | |
| 2017.05.3 | More In-situ data from non-summer months is needed | Community | Actioned | Argo and BGC-Argo help a lot, as some saildrone deployments. BGC-Argo floats now include several optional sensors in addition to the 6 core variables. |
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 | OPEN | MESCAL was transformed into AOS after the release of the NASA Decadal Survey. AOS doesn’t include any oceanic capabilities. No space-borne oceanic profiling lidar is in development with other agencies, but Italian Space Agency is developing a UV-VIS-NIR lidar for clouds, aerosols and ocean with fluorescence and with potential ocean profiling capabilities for the atmospheric community. |
| 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 | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.1 | The community should to develop coupled atmosphere-ocean simulators for lidar propagation (Hydrolight-like) freely available | Community | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.2 | The community should make open-source tools or codes for processing L1 and L2 CALIOP and ATLAS data freely available | Community | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.3 | Space agencies need to make daily Ocean L1 and L2 CALIOP and ATLAS archives available, with a portal to easily view and download the data (such as oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov) as soon as possible. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.4 | The community needs to share current and past in-situ (shipborne, airborne, fixed platforms) lidar measurements. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.5 | Space agencies should fund, and the community should 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) | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.6 | The community should develop a ground-based network of profiling sensors to validate future ocean spaceborne lidar and passive OC missions | Community | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.7 | The community needs to have better coordination with the atmospheric community for lidar development, scientific objectives and field campaigns | Community | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.8 | The community should 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 | OPEN | |
| 2023.09.9 | The entire community (agencies, IOCCG, scientists, etc.) should promote/endorse space-borne oceanic profiling lidar (ocean capabilities of CALIGOLA space mission) | Community | Actioned | Community support for new IOCCG working group on LIDAR |
New Technologies
| 2019.07.1 | Standardize VC for new radiometric platforms | Community | Actioned | Ongoing |
| 2019.07.2 | Better spectral angle and angular scattering instrument and approaches | Community | Actioned | This has partially been tackled. |
| 2019.07.3 | Cube-sat and pseudo satellites for low-cost demonstration mission | Community | Actioned | Ongoing |
Optically Complex Waters
| 2017.04.01 | Identify potential new validation sites and set up hyperspectral AERONET/AERONET-OC stations in other coastal and inland water bodies | Community | Actioned | Advancements through the HYPERWATERNET have been made to extend our existing validation networks. Other stationary sites (such as those equipped by WISP) have been established. |
| 2017.04.02 | 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 | OPEN | |
| 2017.04.03 | Apply spectral unmixing approaches to correct for adjacency effects from adjacent land/ice. | Community | OPEN | Initiating a working group on this topic appears necessary |
| 2017.04.04 | 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 | OPEN | Intercomparison of existing glint correction/mitigation approaches seems appropriate. |
| 2017.04.05 | Algorithms should be developed globally but applied locally | Community | Actioned | Significant progress has been made over the past three years. Several promising approaches have been emerged |
| 2017.04.06 | Need more in situ data in local water bodies; data sharing and data publication should be encouraged | Community | Actioned | 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. |
| 2017.04.07 | Need for standardization of procedures for in situ data collection in inland waters | Community | Actioned | researchers use existing protocols for collecting various fiducial reference measurements, which are agnostic to whether they’re collected in inland, coastal, or open ocean waters. |
| 2017.04.08 | Measurements of mass-specific Inherent Optical Properties (sIOPs) are critical for algorithm development. | Community | No Action Required | |
| 2017.04.09 | Quantitative studies evaluating the impact of various spatial resolutions on retrievals are needed in order to establish reasonable limits on desired spatial resolution | Community | OPEN | |
| 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 | Actioned | IOCCG Task Force on Sensor Calibration aims to do this. NASA/USGS & Copernicus have collaborated. SBG and CHIME appear to coordinate efforts to ensure maximum synergies between the foreseen observations. |
| 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 | Actioned | Some of the recently launched applications (CyAN) have aided in enhancing dialogue with end-users |
| 2017.04.12 | Building trust with the management community will require documented protocols, validation efforts and rigorous QA/QC | Community | Actioned | |
| 2017.04.13 | Citizen science measures should be encouraged for generating in situ data for product validation | Community | Actioned | Citizen science initiatives are on the increase and welcome within the community. |
| 2017.07.1 | Set-up a funded OCR-VC working group with specific deliverables | IOCCG | Actioned | OCR-VC set up |
| 2017.07.2 | Develop an atmospheric correction prototype processor for coastal and inland waters. | Community | Actioned | |
| 2017.07.3 | Develop a prototype processor that will deliver accurate transitions between open ocean, coastal waters and inland waters | Community | Actioned | CERTO project is investigating this. |
| 2017.07.4 | Develop community guidance on the standardization of statistical metrics to assess algorithm performance | Community | Actioned | |
| 2017.07.5 | Develop a strategy to inform the community of best practices for performance assessment of algorithms. | Community | Actioned | IOCCG Report 18, publications and the Oceans Best Practices Repository |
| 2019.04.1 | Promote the application of IOPs, as it is the first-order inversion products from Rrs | Community | Actioned | |
| 2023.01.1 | Space agencies should develop a strategy for remote sensing of optically complex waters in dialogue with the scientific community within the next two years. | Agency | Actioned | CHIME and Sentinel next generation are part of the strategy by ESA, AquaWatch Australia also focusing on this. KRISHNA mission for coastal waters with plans to address spatial resolution issues, SBG, CoastWatch and GEOXO |
| 2023.01.2 | Community organisations should focus more strongly on the science policy interface, than on research and technology, to help improve the integration of remote sensing in traditional lake monitoring | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.01.01 | Further develop algorithms for correction of adjacency effects to include 1) refined capability to account for atmospheric optical properties and off-nadir view, 2) capability to account for water surface reflectance anisotropy, 3) evaluation of algorithm uncertainties. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.01.02 | Collect reference in situ measurements for the validation of adjacency effects correction algorithms (i.e., over small or narrow water bodies, and near-to-the-shore in coastal waters and large inland water basins). | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.01.03 | Space agencies should support the further development and validation of adjacency effects correction algorithms. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.01.04 | Space agencies and IOCCG should promote intercomparison exercises of adjacency effects correction algorithms with reference in situ data and potentially with synthetic data. | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.01.05 | Develop flags identifying satellite data pixels potentially contaminated by adjacency effects. | Community | OPEN |
Validation (FRM), Protocols & Training
| 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 | Actioned | IOCCG Protocol documents |
| 2013.06.2 | Some support for protocol development should be secured from various agencies (NASA, ESA, EUMESAT, etc.). | IOCCG | Actioned | IOCCG now funds Protocol development |
| 2013.06.3 | 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 | Actioned | |
| 2013.07.1 | More online / distance training are required. | IOCCG | Actioned | SLS lectures recorded & online. Much support for many online trainings, etc. since 2013 https://ioccg.org/what-we-do/training-and-education/educational-links-and-resources/ |
| 2013.07.2 | Provide training on software and tools to support use of VIIRS and OLCI data, as well as other new missions | Agency | Actioned | |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 2013.07.4 | Use Wikipedia for outreach and information provision to provide more information on ocean colour and ocean-colour training. | Community | Actioned | |
| 2013.07.5 | Training and outreach activities aimed at the policy/decision making level | Agency | Actioned | OSOS meetings, EUMETSAT training, etc |
| 2013.07.6 | Explore the value, and practicalities of competencies and certification | IOCCG | Actioned | Certificates given for advanced training. IOCCG not a certifying body, so Universities are best for this. |
| 2017.08.1 | The current best practices for in-water measurements are not described and need to be detailed. | Community | Actioned | We worked on a protocol document that detailed the in-water measurement practices |
| 2017.08.2 | 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 | Actioned | On-going effort |
| 2023.03.1 | IOCCG should maintain a living inventory of validation activities, and create an accompanying webtool that seamlessly allows the community to submit their information. This should be accompanied by a data catalogue that indicates where agencies/countries keep their data and how to access it (12 months) | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.02.01 | Follow metrological principles for calibration of radiometric sensors used on BGC-Argo profiling floats: 1) intercompare radiometric measurements on BGC-Argo with other in-water profiling systems (e.g. HyperPro) 2) characterise long-term sensor drift by recovering floats, when possible, for post-deployment calibration. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.02.02 | Agencies should use BGC-Argo floats for validation of satellite OCR products. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.02.03 | Promote discussion between the BGC-Argo and ocean colour communities through dedicated actions (e.g. working groups and workshops). | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.02.04 | Work towards building a community processor for common in-water radiometric profilers with associated uncertainties complying with FRM protocols. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.02.05 | Consider the use of shorter wavelengths for bbp measurements (e.g. in the green region) onboard BGC-Argo floats, in addition, or as an alternative, to 700 nm. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.09.05 | Support training to collect good FRM-quality data | IOCCG | OPEN |
Research to Operation / User Needs
| 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 | Actioned | This recommendation is noted. Cal/val of SGLI is continued, and efforts are ongoing for all agencies. |
| 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 | Actioned | Both NRT and standard products are produced. |
| 2013.05.3 | Produce and distribute Level-3 data. | Agency | Actioned | Completed for JAXA: Level-3 of SGLI are produced and distribute freely. |
| 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 | Actioned | Completed for JAXA: we had distributed to data for PIs within 1-year, and to the public after 1 year. |
| 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 | Actioned | This was tabled at the IOCCG-28 meeting, and agencies consider this request, Some agencies already have open source software. |
| 2013.05.6 | Provide all data online for downloading (instead of a limited rolling archive). | Agency | Actioned | Completed for JAXA all data is available through both GUI and SFTP. |
| 2013.05.7 | Expand the core product suite; keep algorithms state-of-the-art. | Agency | Actioned | SGLI Ver 3 is released in 2021 and reprocessed in 2022. ESA: Project is on-going to provide a dedicated L2A aquatic reflectance product for coastal and inland waters (timeline: end of 2024) |
| 2013.05.8 | Consolidate ocean colour requirements for services, ecosystem and management applications. | Agency | Actioned | IOCCG reports cover some part of the requirements. EUMETSAT is currently documenting end-user requirements and traceability to applications. |
| 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 | Actioned | Scope of IOCCG Task Forces and OCR-VC cover and coordinate on a more permanent basis |
| 2015.04.1 | Water quality end users provide examples of when less accurate data is better than no data. | Community | Actioned | Geo Aquawatch has been active in this area and IOCCG collaborates. Was the focused at IOCS-2025 meeting, with panels and breakout sessions to understand user needs, with new recommendations made. |
| 2015.04.2 | Continued training and enhanced engagement with water quality end-users are recommended | IOCCG | Actioned | |
| 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 for water quality data. | Community | Actioned | Engagement in collaboration with Geo Aquawatch or CEOS COAST-VC. |
| 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 | Actioned | ESA OC-CCI project. IOCCG Task Force on Harmonizing Global OC for Long-Term Climate and Ecosystem Monitoring |
| 2019.06.2 | Need to actively engage with users through workshops and trainings | Agency | Actioned | |
| 2019.06.3 | IOCCG could extend its tasks to coordinate above (user engagement) | IOCCG | Actioned | e.g. TownHall at Ocean Sciences 2020, IOCCG website advertises workshops and training for users |
| 2023.05.1 | IOCCG should form a User Engagement Task Force to oversee the following goals to be accomplished in the next 2 to 3 years: bridge the service gaps between space agencies and end-users; quick start guide for ocean colour data access; enable the novice ocean colour data user to see the value in ocean colour data products for their research or application; build community confidence and enhance user knowledge of the relative performance of ocean colour models; develop plain language and recommended standards for reporting uncertainties for ocean colour. [Full details of recommendation] | IOCCG | OPEN | Call for proposals issued (May 2024) |
| 2023.05.2 | IOCCG should request agencies to acknowledge in their mid-to-long range planning that consistent (across sensors and missions) long term time series are needed in response to user requirements, and for agencies to fund efforts for development, production, performance evaluation, validation, monitoring, and reprocessing for operational long term time series data products in the next 2-7 years | IOCCG | Actioned | Discussion and action taken at the IOCCG-28 Committee Meeting. |
Resolution - spectral, spatial, temporal
| 2013.03.1 | Geostationary | Broader distribution and application of GOCI data is recommended to demonstrate the utility of geostationary ocean colour radiometry data. | Agency | Actioned | Web-based data service (http://kosc.kiost.ac.kr) open access for research/public use |
| 2013.03.2 | Geostationary | Organize geostationary ocean colour radiometry sessions at future meetings (IOCS, Ocean Optics, AGU, EGU, etc.) | Community | Actioned | The following IOCS in 2015 had a session. |
| 2013.03.3 | Geostationary | Generate geostationary articles in various publications (IOCCG newsletter, EOS, peer-review articles, etc.) | Community | OPEN | |
| 2015.02.1 | Geostationary | Form a new IOCCG Geostationary WG that will do below | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2015.02.2 | Geostationary | Perform sensitivity studies to examine the accuracy of retrievals at large sensor and solar zenith angles | Community | OPEN | |
| 2015.02.3 | Geostationary | Optimize NASA’s OC aerosol models for coastal regions | Community | OPEN | |
| 2015.02.4 | Geostationary | Develop methods to detect different types of absorbing aerosols (mineral dust, black carbon, industrial pollutants, continental aerosols) | Community | OPEN | |
| 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 | OPEN | |
| 2015.02.6 | Geostationary | Follow the expected improvements in atmospheric corrections algorithms, for example, developments by the NASA PACE science team | Community | OPEN | |
| 2015.04.4 | Water Quality | 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 | Actioned | the S2 Next Generation bands are evolving to incorporate extra narrow channels (Carsten Brockmann may be able to complete this comment), SuperDove, PACE, etc. ESA: A number of additional bands are planned for S2NG to improve Chl retrieval, Chl/CDOM separation, (0: 412nm) cyanobacteria detection (3a:620nm, 3b:650nm), improved retrieval of pigments(1a:470nm) |
| 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 | Actioned | Recommendations from the expert community are now routinely taken into account in planning stages of missions. (e.g. Carsten Brockmann is in the S2 Next Generation Advisory group for ESA) |
| 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 | Actioned | Some efforts are underway. For instance, there is now a open dialog between the SBG, GLIMR and PACE missions through the Aquatic Cross-Mission Exchange (ACME). |
| 2015.07.2 | Hyperspectral | Establish working group to coordinate available airborne hyperspectral datasets | IOCCG | Actioned | 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 | Hyperspectral | Utilize existing data to demonstrate the potential use of hyperspectral information. | Community | Actioned | 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. |
| 2015.07.4 | 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 | Actioned | Synthesized and measured data have been collected in preparation for PACE, but no standardized library has been developed for public use. |
| 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 | Actioned | 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). |
| 2017.01.2 | Hyperspectral | establish a framework for clear traceability of errors | Community | Actioned | See efforts Brewin et al. FMARS 2017, Xi et al. JGR 2021; Jorge et al. RSE 2021 |
| 2017.01.3 | Hyperspectral | increase the utilization of current hyperspectral satellite data as a test bed (SCIAMACHY, HICO, etc.) | Community | Actioned | 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. |
| 2017.01.4 | Hyperspectral | improve communication between data providers and users | Community | Actioned | On-going. PACE has done quite a bit in this area and SBG applications team has also worked with early adopters. |
| 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 | Actioned | new cured data collections were released, e.g. Lehmann et al. Scientific Data 2023, Valente et al. ESSD 2022 |
| 2017.01.6 | Hyperspectral | Ocean scientists to engage more with atmospheric scientists, and potentially abandon a “one-size-fits-all” approach to AC. | Community | Actioned | Extensive collaboration has been underway with the PACE mission, which include a strong atmospheric component. SBG has also been in discussions with AOS to find helpful synergies between the surface and atmospheric observations. Both missions are evaluating the best approach to AC over water. ACIX modeling comparison excercise has intercompared various hyperspectral AC algorithhm performance. However, there has not been a lot of movement away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach. To the contrary, the direction seems still to be find a single algorithm that has the best performance. |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 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 | Actioned | AS – We’ve used UAVs with hyperspectral sensors and with sub-meter scale ground resolution to try and get at the fractal behavior of surface slicks. So we were able to synoptically sample from sub meter to 1 Km scales and I am working on getting at the fractal effects, validating an algorithm is still a stretch. |
| 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 | Actioned | PACE hypersepectral era we’ll have a variety of hyperspectral radiometric measurements, both in situ and spaceborne, that will help us address point 2. Data from multi-angle polarimeters are likely to provide insight into surface slick detection as the BRDF as well as helping us discriminate Tricho from aerosols (something that is problematic with contemporary multispectral scanners). Hyperspectral above-water reflectance acquired in the frame of the ESA HyperBoost project (2023-2024) along the European coastlines. |
| 2017.02.3 | Trichodesmium | Need to determine appropriate ground-truthing measurements | Community | OPEN | “Ground truth” is complicated. It is not clear where one would sample for “ground truth” – we found measurements within meters of each other with an order of magnitude difference in trichome counts or chl/PE concentrations. |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 2017.02.5 | Geostationary / Trichodesmium | Geostationary satellites could resolve temporal variations of biomass and this maybe the key for models | Community | OPEN | It’s worth considering which oceanic regions where Tricho is abundant currently are (or will be) observed by GEO ocean color missions. |
| 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 | Actioned | Efforts are taken, but coordination globally is lacking |
| 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 | OPEN | . |
| 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 | Actioned | New data sets were collected and published (REF will follow). |
| 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 | Actioned | PACE now has the appropriate spectral bands for this. |
| 2019.02.5 | Phytoplankton from Hyperspectral | Geostationary satellites could resolve temporal variations of biomass and this maybe the key for models | Community | Actioned | Considerable progress in Geostationary satellites: KIOST, NOAA, NASA |
| 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 | Actioned | SBG is working towards collaboration with ESA CHIME to provide a constellation of three satellites carrying high-spectral resolution spectrometers with Landsat/Sentinel 2 surface sampling and with Landsat-like radiometric performance. Australian AquaWatch mission concept could potentially add to this capability. |
| 2019.03.2 | High Temporal/Spatial Resolution Applications | Space agencies should coordinate mission formulations, and pre-launch calibration to minimize differences in products | Agency | Actioned | PACE, GLIMR and SBG (via the ACME) are coordinating aquatic algorithm evaluation and selection with the objective of developing a suite of common data products and looking to leverage cal/val activities. However, there are a few “missed” opportunities, such as the choice of a descending pre-noon orbit for SBG, which is less compatible to the PACE ascending afternoon orbit for leveraging cross-calibration opportunities. CEOS/WGCV and OCR-VC |
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 | Actioned | Completed for JAXA – attending the GSICS |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 2015.09.1 | The interpretation of long-term trends in ocean color products should consider the calibration uncertainty in any assessment | Community | Actioned | |
| 2019.08.1 | Every mission should evaluate if lunar observations can be acquired at least infrequently. | Agency | Actioned | |
| 2019.08.2 | Every mission should evaluate if for a newly launched sensor, a tandem flight is possible to evaluate calibration consistency | Agency | Actioned | Done for Sentinel-3. Recommended for others. |
| 2019.08.3 | Gain calibration trends should not contain discontinuities that are not clearly supported by calibration measurements | Agency | Actioned | SGLI operates monthly lunar-cal and weekly solar/lamp cal. |
| 2023.06.1 | All missions should clearly identify which solar irradiance spectrum they are using to produce their science products | Agency | Actioned | Agreed by agencies at the IOCCG-28 meeting and already implemented by some. |
| 2025.04.01 | On-board solar diffusers should be characterized prelaunch as close to on-orbit conditions as possible (‘as-you-fly’). High BRDF accuracy should be achieved at a reference solar geometry, which can then be used as a baseline for relative BRDF characterization via spacecraft rotations on-orbit. Characterization efforts must continue on-orbit with sensor temporal trending. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.04.02 | Increased focus should be dedicated to the prelaunch characterization of the SWIR bands at low level radiances. This is because the dynamic range between the top-of-atmosphere radiance over ocean and the calibration radiance (prelaunch or on-orbit) is typically even larger in the SWIR than in the visible spectrum. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.04.03 | Agencies are encouraged to support GSICS and CEOS/WGCV IVOS, which are undertaking activities to reduce uncertainties and achieve absolute calibration of lunar irradiance models with a goal to facilitate using the moon for on-orbit absolute calibration. | Agency | OPEN |
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 | Actioned | Ongoing and recognized by most parties. |
| 2013.08.2 | The importance of involving National Reference Laboratories in the characterization of field radiometers and SI traceability of measurements is essential. | Agency | Actioned | Ongoing and recognized by most parties. |
| 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 | Actioned | Ongoing consideration |
| 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 | Actioned | 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 | Actioned | Ongoing consideration |
| 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 | Actioned | Session fed into OC-SVC TF |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 2017.03.3 | it was recommended to not write definitive numbers in public documents when they cannot be perfectly justified. | Community | Unmeasurable | |
| 2017.03.4 | Aerosols need to be characterized and monitored at the SVC site measurements need | Community | Actioned | |
| 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 | Actioned | IOCCG has set up a task force on SVC. Agencies have continued to fund SVC infrastructure and there is a harmonized approach towards SVC infrastructure. |
| 2019.05.1 | There is still disagreement of how to define protocols for some aspects of matching data for analysis (i.e. box size, time lag). Develop white paper to try to achieve agreement | Community | Actioned | SVC White paper generated |
Uncertainties
| 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 | Actioned | SGLI project has a PI team investigating the validaton and uncertainties. Addressed in the ESA OC-CCI initiative. IOCCG Report 18 on Uncertainties (2019) |
| 2015.03.1 | Establish permanent IOCCG WG on uncertainities. | IOCCG | Actioned | See IOCCG Report 18 (2019) |
| 2015.03.2 | The community needs to engage in more discussion regarding temporal and spatial variability in uncertainty | Community | Actioned | |
| 2015.03.3 | The community should leverage uncertainty studies conducted in other fields. Closure studies common to atmospheric sciences were given as an example. | Community | Actioned | See IOCCG Report 18 (2019) |
| 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 | Actioned | Some published studies now exist. Work remains. |
| 2015.03.5 | Developers of propagation of uncertainty approaches should work to include the inherent algorithm uncertainty | Community | Actioned | |
| 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 | Actioned | |
| 2015.03.7 | The community further explore propagating uncertainties from Level-2 scenes to Level-3 composites. | Community | Actioned | Ongoing; not much apparent progress |
| 2023.08.3 | Space agencies and distribution services (in collaboration with the ocean colour and metrology communities) need to prioritise calculating and distributing uncertainties associated with all products (pixel-based and composite), and including propagation through AC and algorithms following metrological practices. | Agency | OPEN | While some progress is being made to estimate pixel-by-pixel uncertainties for ocean carbon pools and fluxes, more work is needed to fully understand and reduce uncertainties in satellite-based ocean carbon products. |
| 2025.06.01 | Continue support for global training initiatives with coordinated and coherent approaches to radiometry to ensure that participants fully understand protocols and measurement uncertainties with hands-on experience (i.e. no decrease in training with time). | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.06.02 | Increase dedicated efforts in sea-surface reflectance factor modelling and comparisons and with summarized uncertainty evaluations, preferably in a dedicated breakout session at the next IOCS meeting, in 2027. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.06.03 | Regular (every 3-5 years) inter-comparisons should be supported by the agencies with funding available for participants, including uncertainty workshops and participant involvement in the planning phase, which should lead to a number of intercomparisons planned and executed by international teams. | Agency | OPEN |
Water Quality (including HABs & Marine Debris)
| 2025.05.01 | Identify bloom definitions and thresholds together with users, considering regulatory policy instruments and applying an eco-region-specific approach. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.02 | Use additional information (based on spectral features, pigment absorption, PFT, etc.) to support bloom monitoring. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.03 | Define threshold and anomaly criteria for HAB monitoring through long time series analyses that depend on the type of application. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.04 | Take vertical mixing conditions into account when informing on the severity of blooms, particularly in regard to cyanobacteria. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.05 | Implement the recommendations of Water-ForCE for multivariate, multi-mission service development (see especially chapter 3 and 5). | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.06 | Increase observation frequency and observation capabilities for inland waters, particularly for small lakes. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.07 | Consider constellations of multiple twin sensors that may support increasing temporal coverage and near-real-time services for HAB monitoring. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.08 | Address observation gaps through robust methods for trend fitting or develop lake-specific bias corrections. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.09 | Use multivariate datasets and hybrid observation-model approaches to support the identification and characterization of different bloom types and conditions. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.10 | Fund and coordinate systems for data curation, which are essential to support continued in situ data collection, harmonization, quality control and sharing. | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.11 | Make a coordinated, curated effort to integrate existing datasets, map the measured parameters, highlight gaps in data availability, and assess spatial coverage to guide future data collection. | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.12 | Implement the recommendations of Water-ForCE for data collection, sharing, and new in situ measurements (see section 4). | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.05.13 | Combine in situ data with EO data to confirm bloom characteristics (e.g., toxicity). | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.07.01 | Space agencies should support continued research on remote sensing of floating matter to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with the detection of floating matter to help define the roadmap for the way forward. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.07.02 | IOCCG and the community should continue to foster improved collaboration of diverse expert communities (e.g., citizen science, ocean colour, numerical modelling, industry, civil society, non-profit organisations, environmental agencies) for holistic remote sensing solutions for marine litter and debris. | IOCCG, Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.07.03 | The community, supported by the space agencies, should support a dedicated FAIR resource (e.g., OceanScan) of marine litter and debris that can consolidate in situ and above-water imagery, with metadata, and concurrent satellite overpass, and be accessible and available to all scientists, including for citizen science. | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.07.04 | Space agencies should expedite tasking or new acquisition requests by the community and extend quota allocations for commercial multimodal satellites to establish open-access representative datasets documenting diverse floating matter, especially after extreme weather events (e.g., tsunamis, flooding) and for dedicated field campaigns. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.09.01 | Engage all stakeholders in developing satellite services for water quality, to build trust, understand the needs, support policy and guideline definitions, and deliver the relevant data products and services | Community | OPEN | |
| 2025.09.02 | Implement sustained operational missions with specifications suitable for coastal and inland water quality applications. | Agency | OPEN | |
| 2025.09.03 | Coordinate across the space agencies to deliver data products and services suited for water quality applications to managers and stakeholders (e.g. GeoTIFF images, presence/absence flags, or water quality indicators as used in reporting) | IOCCG | OPEN | |
| 2025.09.04 | Coordinate across the space agencies to provide long-term sustained maintenance of in situ datasets with FRM-quality required for coastal and inland water-quality monitoring | IOCCG | OPEN |