Copernicus FRM4SOC-2025 Training In Above-Water Radiometry

The Second EU Copernicus FRM4SOC Training for in situ Ocean Colour Above-Water Radiometry towards Satellite Validation was held from 6 to 20 July 2025 in Venice and nearby Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower (AAOT) in the Adriatic Sea.

PhD students, postdocs, early career researchers, and experts of the Ocean Colour Community gathered for the second time in the frame of the FRM4SOC-2 project for a comprehensive training event on Ocean Colour In situ Above-Water Radiometric Measurements supported by the European Commission Copernicus Programme and NASA.

Overview

The training offered a unique chance to learn from top experts in Ocean Colour (OC) radiometry about the complexity of the physical processes during field measurements, evaluate the impact of several uncertainty sources, and experience a live demonstration on how to apply measurement protocols and procedures correctly in the field.

Dealing with radiometers is not an easy task. Over time, the response of field optical radiometers to light may change significantly. Also, field radiometers are calibrated in laboratory-controlled conditions, which are very different from the conditions at sea. If not properly understood and assessed, these changes and effects can jeopardise the validity of measurement results. The training will explore these as well as other challenges in collecting high-quality measurement data at sea beyond statistical assessments of measurement results, and will provide standard tools to process raw outputs from radiometers to measurement results with metrologically sound uncertainty estimates for performing satellite matchups.

Event Context

The FRM4SOC-2 project (Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Ocean Colour - Phase 2) funded by the European Commission as a part of the EU Copernicus Programme and implemented by EUMETSAT was launched in April 2021 with the aim of developing an operational and sustained network of radiometric in situ measurements of “FRM quality” (FRM: Fiducial Reference Measurement) as defined by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites. The overarching goal of this initiative is to promote the adoption of FRM principles across the OC community towards enhancing satellite product validation and algorithm development. To achieve this goal, the project team focuses on several tasks:

Firstly, to provide practical guidelines and procedures for calibration, characterisation, use of radiometric instruments, best practice in the field, and how to derive the uncertainty budget of the acquired measurements.
Secondly, to provide tools to process radiometric field measurements with associated uncertainties and databases to store results of calibrations and field measurements.
Thirdly, to test what is being implemented, achieved by means of field inter-comparison experiments.
And finally, to broadcast the guidelines and tools to the OC community. This is mainly achieved by means of workshops and training events.

In this context, the FICE 2025 event is a summit of this project where not only training was offered but also in the context of an inter-comparison exercise where the most rigorous requirements were followed. The trainees did not only learn foundation principles of OC radiometry, perform test field measurements, process the measurements, and perform match-up exercises, but also witnessed an intercomparison exercise performed by OC experts.

Programme

Monday , July 7, 2025

09:00-09:30 Welcome to the course (V. Brando -CNR ISMAR, D. Aurin -NASA, R. Vendt - U. Tartu (remote), E. Kwiatkowska - EUMETSAT (remote))

09:30-10:00 Tour-de-table of trainers

10:00-11:00 Tour-de-table of attendees (I)

11:00-11:30 Coffee-break

11:30-12:00 Tour-de-table attendees (II)

12:00-13:00 Set-up instructions for module 3 and presentation of groups and assignments (J. Gossn -EUMETSAT, D. Aurin-NASA, C. Poulin - NASA)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 Introduction to above radiometry: Optical systems and theory (G. Zibordi -NASA)

15:00-16:00 Measurement procedures (G. Zibordi - NASA)

16:00-16:30 Coffee break

16:30-16:45 Logistics at San Servolo, health and safety at San Servolo and AAOT (A. Pomaro - CNR ISMAR)

16:45-17:15 Overview of scientific activities at AAOT. Short introduction on the instruments measuring continuously on the AAOT tower (A. Pomaro - CNR ISMAR)

17:15-17:45 Short summary of activities at the AAOT (G. Zibordi -NASA)

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

09:00-09:45 What are Fiducial Reference Measurements? The relevance of laboratory and field intercomparisons (A. Bialek-NPL)

09:45-11:00 Introduction to Hyper CP (I) (D. Aurin - NASA, A. Ramsay - NPL)

11:00-11:30 Coffee-break

11:30-13:00 Introduction to Hyper CP (II) (D. Aurin - NASA, A. Ramsay - NPL)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:45 Absolute radiometric calibration of field radiometers (A. Bialek - NPL)

14:45-15:15 The relevance of calibrations and characterisations (A. Bialek – NPL)

15:15-15:45 Characterization of field radiometers: Methodology (A. Bialek – NPL)

15:45-16:15 Coffee-break

16:15-16:45 Characterization of field radiometers (A. Bialek – NPL)

16:45-17:45 BRDF correction: D'Alimonte 25, Dataset & O 25 (J.P. Portero – CNR ISMAR)

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

09:00-13:00 Measurements at San Servolo jetty. Measurement procedures: Demo with TriOS (K. Alikas - U. Tartu)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Measurement procedure. TriOS : Export data acquired on jetty to '. mlb' (I) (K. Alikas – U. Tartu )

15:30-16:00 Coffee-break

16:00-17:30 Measurement procedure. TriOS : Export data acquired on jetty to '. mlb' (II) (K. Alikas – U. Tartu )

Thursday, July 10, 2025

08:00-18:00 Day visit to AAOT - shift 1 (V. Brando - CNR ISMAR, G. Zibordi - NASA, J.P. Portero - CNR ISMAR, K. Alikas - U. Tartu)

***

09:00-11:00 PACE data - shift 1 (C. Poulin - NASA, D. Aurin - NASA, H. Evers-King - EUMETSAT, J. Gossn - EUMETSAT)

11:00-11:30 Coffee-break

11:30-13:00 PACE data hands on - shift 1 (C. Poulin – NASA, D. Aurin – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT, J. Gossn – EUMETSAT)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00- 16:00 OLCI data- shift 1 (C. Poulin – NASA, D. Aurin – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT, J. Gossn – EUMETSAT)

16:00- 16:30 Coffee-break

16:30- 18:00 OLCI data hands on - shift 1 (C. Poulin – NASA, D. Aurin – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT, J. Gossn – EUMETSAT)

Friday, July 11, 2025

08:00-18:00 Day visit to AAOT - shift 2 (V. Brando - CNR ISMAR, G. Zibordi - NASA, J. P. Portero – CNR ISMAR, K. Alikas – U. Tartu)

***

09:00-11:00 PACE data - shift 2 (C. Poulin - NASA, D. Aurin - NASA, H. Evers-King - EUMETSAT, J. Gossn - EUMETSAT)

11:00-11:30 Coffee—break

11:30-13:00 PACE data hands on - shift 2 (C. Poulin – NASA, D. Aurin – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT, J. Gossn – EUMETSAT)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00- 16:00 OLCI data- shift 2 (C. Poulin – NASA, D. Aurin – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT, J. Gossn – EUMETSAT)

16:00- 16:30 Coffee-break

16:30-18:00 OLCI data hands on - shift 2 (C. Poulin – NASA, D. Aurin – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT, J. Gossn – EUMETSAT)

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Weekend

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Weekend

Monday, July 14, 2025

09:00-10:00 AERONET-OC: network, processing and applications (G. Zibordi – NASA)

10:00-10:30 Near surface methods (G. Zibordi – NASA)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee-break

11:00 – 12:00 Uncertainties, with a practical view to their quantification (G. Zibordi – NASA)

12:00-13:00 (Guest Lecture) PACE Validation Activities: The PACE-PAX Validation Campaign ( K. Knobelspiesse – NASA)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00- 18:00 ThoMas match-up toolkit

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

09:00-11:00 HyperCP hands-on (I) (D. Aurin – NASA, A. Ramsay - NPL)

11:00-11:30 Coffee-break

11:30-13:00 HyperCP hands-on (II) (D. Aurin – NASA, A.Ramsay - NPL)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:30 Application of field data to the quantification of uncertainties in satellite data products (G. Zibordi – NASA)

14:30-15:30 Open panel on publications, open source toolkits , data, DOIs, CRediT Taxonomy. (G. Zibordi – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT, J. Gossn - EUMETSAT, D. Aurin - NASA, V. Brando – CNR ISMAR)

15:30-16:00 Coffee-break

16:00-18:00 HyperCP + ThoMaS hands-on (D. Aurin – NASA, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT)

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

09:00-10:00 GUM general metrological framework (I) (A. Bialek – NPL)

10:00-10:30 Coffee-break

10:30-11:30 GUM general metrological framework (II) (A. Bialek – NPL)

11:30-12:00 Uncertainty analysis in HyperCP (A. Bialek – NPL)

12:00-13:00 Application of field data to the assessment of satellite data products. Comparing performance metrics with different matchup protocols (V. Brando – CNR ISMAR)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:30 Uncertainty in HyperCP due to instument characterisation (A. Bialek - NPL)

14:30-14:45 Group assignments (J. Gossn – EUMETSAT, H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT)

14:30-16:00 Work on group assignments (I)