The Second Edition of the EU Copernicus Programme 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
09:30-10:00 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)
13:00-14:00 Lunch
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)
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
11:00-11:30 Coffee-break
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:45-15:15 The relevance of calibrations and characterisations (A. Bialek – NPL)
15:45-16:15 Coffee-break
16:15-16:45 Characterization of field radiometers (A. Bialek – NPL)
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
10:00-10:30 Near surface methods (G. Zibordi – NASA)
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee-break
12:00-13:00 (Guest Lecture) PACE Validation Activities: The PACE-PAX Validation Campaign ( K. Knobelspiesse – NASA)
13:00-14:00 Lunch
16:00- 16:30 Coffee-break
16:30-18:00 ThoMaS hands-on (I) (D. Aurin – NASA, A. Ramsay – NPL)
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
11:00-11:30 Coffee-break
13:00-14:00 Lunch
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)
- On publishing scientific articles and data sharing (G. Zibordi – NASA)
- On contributing to open source software (H. Evers-King – EUMETSAT)
- Introduction to the CRediT taxonomy (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
10:00-10:30 Coffee-break
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)
16:00-16:30 Coffee-break
16:30-18:00 Work on group assignments (II)
Thursday, July 17, 2025
09:00-11:00 Work on group assignments (III)
11:00-11:30 Coffee-break
11:30-12:30 Submission of HyperCP outputs to SeaBASS and OCDB (D. Aurin – NASA, J. Gossn - EUMETSAT (remote)
12:30-13:00 Review of HyperCP exercises (D. Aurin – NASA, A. Ramsay - NPL)
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:30-18:00 Work on group assignments (IV)
Friday, July 18, 2025
09:00-11:00 Work on group assignments (V)
11:00-11:30 Coffee-break
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00- 16:30 Work on group assignments (VI)
16:30-17:20 Drop laptop, leave for Dinner
17:20-18:00 Vaporetti transfer
18:00-21:00 Reception
Saturday, July 19, 2025
09:00-11:00 Presentation of results from groups (I , II , III) (trainees)
11:00-11:30 Coffee-break
11:30-12:30 Presentation of results from the groups (IV , V , VI) (trainees)
12:30-12:45 Debrief of the field experience and challenges faced. Feedback survey (all)
13:00-14:00 Lunch
END
Event dates: 6 - 20 July 2025
Venue: Venice International University, on the Island of San Servolo.
Hosted By: Institute of Marine Science (CNR-ISMAR), Italy
Contact: applications.trainings2025.frm4soc-2@TartuUlikool.onmicrosoft.com
The Executive Committee of the EU Copernicus Programme FRM4SOC-2025 training
- Dr. Vittorio Brando - Institute of Marine Science (CNR-ISMAR), Italy
- Dr. Riho Vendt - Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, Estonia
- Dr. Dirk A. Aurin - NASA
- Dr. Carina Poulin - NASA
- Dr. Ivona Cetinic - NASA
- Dr. Juan Ignacio Gossn - EUMETSAT
- Dr. Hayley Evers-King - EUMETSAT
- Dr. Ewa Kwiatkowska - EUMETSAT