Author:
Karin Pai

The FRM4SOC-2 workshop in Germany brought together specialists in the validation of satellite data for water remote sensing

From 5 to 7 December, the FRM4SOC-2 project held a workshop in Darmstadt, Germany, to discuss how to assure the high quality of in situ measurements and verify satellite data reliability in ocean colour. The seminar was organised by Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu as leader of the consortium. It was held in cooperation with EUMETSAT at their headquarters. There were around 50 participants, half of whom participated online. Riho Vendt, Karin Pai, Martin Ligi, Krista Alikas and Viktor Vabson from Tartu Observatory were there.

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FRM4SOC-2 projekti seminar Darmstadtis - Tartu observatoorium - Tartu Ülikool

Fiducial reference measurements (FRMs) are independent land and water surface measurements that help to interpret satellite data and assess their reliability. Fiducial measurements follow the quality assurance guidelines of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). Reliable measurements are related to the International System of Units (SI) with associated uncertainties. Setting up and maintaining such a control system can be very costly, so one of the objectives of the FRM4SOC project is to develop the most optimal way of checking data reliability.

At the workshop, the participants discussed the development and implementation of FRM principles in remote sensing of water bodies. The fruitful discussions at the meeting and the feedback from participants will help the community to understand and follow these principles coherently.

Understanding and implementation of FRM principles, community needs, and the implementers' perspective were the main topics of the meeting. The workshop's keynote speeches were "FRM resources and community needs" (S. Bernard, SANSA) and "The user perspective" (A. C. Banks, HCMR).

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FRM4SOC-2 projekti seminar - Tartu observatoorium - Tartu Ulikool

Seminar topics covered:
- general FRM principles (existing tools and lessons learned),
- guidelines for the calibration of radiometers and the evaluation of measurement characteristics,
- guidelines for laboratories calibrating and testing radiometers,
- instructions for users of radiometers for the collection of measurement data,
- instructions for the assessment of uncertainty,
- instructions for the organisation of reference measurements,
- requirements for radiometers meeting the FRM quality requirements,
- development of the FRMOCnet network of radiometric measurements,
- a database of radiometers calibrated and tested according to FRM requirements (FidRadDB),
- a database of on-site measurements for remote sensing of water bodies (OCDB),
- HyperInSPACE Community Processor data processing software,
- summary of the laboratory and field measurements carried out in the framework of the project.

The agenda of the seminar, along with presentations, can be found on the seminar website. The guides, software, databases, and summarised conclusions of the activities developed under the project will be published on the frm4soc website in spring 2023.

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FRM4SOC-2 projekti seminar - Tartu observatoorium - Tartu Ulikool

The European Space Agency funded the project from 2016 to 2019 as the first phase of an ongoing project. The current second phase was launched by EUMETSAT in April 2021 and is funded by the European Commission. The project will end in March 2023, but negotiations are ongoing to extend the project for another year.

 

 

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