ALBERT

Description: The Ocean Color component of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET-OC) has been implemented to support long-term satellite ocean color investigations through cross-site consistent and accurate measurements collected by autonomous radiometer systems deployed on offshore fixed platforms. The ultimate purpose of AERONET-OC is the production of standardized measurements performed at different sites with identical measuring systems and protocols, calibrated using a single reference source and method, and processed with the same code. The AERONET-OC primary data product is the normalized water leaving radiance determined at center-wavelengths of interest for satellite ocean color applications, with an uncertainty lower than 5% in the blue-green spectral regions and higher than 8% in the red. Measurements collected at 6 sites counting the northern Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Proper, the Gulf of Finland, the Persian Gulf, and, the northern and southern margins of the Middle Atlantic Bay, have shown the capability of producing quality assured data over a wide range of bio-optical conditions including Case-2 yellow substance- and sedimentdominated waters. This work briefly introduces network elements like: deployment sites, measurement method, instrument calibration, processing scheme, quality-assurance, uncertainties, data archive and products accessibility. Emphases is given to those elements which underline the network strengths (i.e., mostly standardization of any network element) and its weaknesses (i.e., the use of consolidated, but old-fashioned technology). The work also addresses the application of AERONET-OC data to the validation of primary satellite radiometric products over a variety of complex coastal waters and finally provides elements for the identification of new deployment sites most suitable to support satellite ocean color missions.

Description: Phytoplankton photosynthesis in the sun lit upper layer of the global ocean is the overwhelmingly dominant source of organic matter that fuels marine ecosystems. Phytoplankton contribute roughly half of the global (land and ocean) net primary production (NPP; gross photosynthesis minus plant respiration) and phytoplankton carbon fixation is the primary conduit through which atmospheric CO2 concentrations interact with the ocean s carbon cycle. Phytoplankton productivity depends on the availability of sunlight, macronutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorous), and micronutrients (e.g., iron), and thus is sensitive to climate-driven changes in the delivery of these resources to the euphotic zone

Description: Fixation of organic carbon by phytoplankton is the foundation of nearly all open-ocean ecosystems and a critical part of the global carbon cycle. But quantification and validation of ocean primary productivity at large scale remains a major challenge, due to limited coverage of ship-based measurements and the difficulty of validating diverse measurement techniques. Accurate primary productivity measurements from autonomous platforms would be highly desirable, due to much greater potential coverage. In pursuit of this goal we estimate gross primary productivity over two months in the springtime North Atlantic from an autonomous Lagrangian float using diel cycles of particulate organic carbon derived from optical beam attenuation. We test method precision and accuracy by comparison against entirely independent estimates from a locally parameterized model based on chlorophyll a and light measurements from the same float. During nutrient replete conditions (80% of the study period), we obtain strong relative agreement between the independent methods across an order of magnitude of productivities (r(sq.)=0.97), with slight under-estimation by the diel cycles method (-19+/-5 %). At the end of the diatom bloom, this relative difference increases to -58 % for a six-day period, likely a response to SiO4 limitation, which is not included in the model. In addition, we estimate gross oxygen productivity from O2 diel cycles and find strong correlation with diel cycles-based gross primary productivity over the entire deployment, providing further qualitative support to both methods. Finally, simultaneous estimates of net community productivity, carbon export and particle size suggest that bloom growth is halted by a combination of reduced productivity due to SiO4 limitation and increased export efficiency due to rapid aggregation. After the diatom bloom, high chlorophyll a normalized productivity indicates that low net growth during this period is due to increased heterotrophic respiration and not nutrient limitation. These findings represent a significant advance in the accuracy and completeness of upper ocean carbon cycle measurements from an autonomous platform.

Description: NASA's projects for the Mississippi River Coastal Margin Study include Mississippi River Interdisciplinary Research (MiRIR) and NASA Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). These projects, undertaken with the help of Tulane University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) sampled water in the Gulf of Mexico to measure colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). This viewgraph presentation contains images of each program's sampling strategy and equipment.

Description: The accurate determination of upper ocean apparent optical properties (AOPs) is essential for the vicarious calibration of the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) instrument and the validation of the derived data products. To evaluate the importance of data analysis methods upon derived AOP values, the Second Data Analysis Round Robin (DARR-00) activity was planned during the latter half of 1999 and executed during March 2000. The focus of the study was the intercomparison of several standard AOP parameters: (1) the upwelled radiance immediately below the sea surface, L(sub u)(0(-),lambda); (2) the downward irradiance immediately below the sea surface, E(sub d)(0(-),lambda); (3) the diffuse attenuation coefficients from the upwelling radiance and the downward irradiance profiles, L(sub L)(lambda) and K(sub d)(lambda), respectively; (4) the incident solar irradiance immediately above the sea surface, E(sub d)(0(+),lambda); (5) the remote sensing reflectance, R(sub rs)(lambda); (6) the normalized water-leaving radiance, [L(sub W)(lambda)](sub N); (7) the upward irradiance immediately below the sea surface, E(sub u)(0(-)), which is used with the upwelled radiance to derive the nadir Q-factor immediately below the sea surface, Q(sub n)(0(-),lambda); and (8) ancillary parameters like the solar zenith angle, theta, and the total chlorophyll concentration, C(sub Ta), derived from the optical data through statistical algorithms. In the results reported here, different methodologies from three research groups were applied to an identical set of 40 multispectral casts in order to evaluate the degree to which differences in data analysis methods influence AOP estimation, and whether any general improvements can be made. The overall results of DARR-00 are presented in Chapter 1 and the individual methods used by the three groups and their data processors are presented in Chapters 2-4.

Description: This report presents the Bouee pour l'acquisition de Series Optiques a Long Terme (BOUSSOLE) project, the primary objectives of which are to provide a long-term time series of optical properties in support of a) calibration and validation activities associated with satellite ocean color missions, and b) bio-optical research in oceanic waters. The following are included in the report: 1) an introduction to the rationale for establishing the project; 2) a definition of vicarious calibration and the specific requirements attached to it; 3) the organization of the project and the characteristics of the measurement site--in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea; 4) a qualitative overview of the collected data; 5) details about the buoy that was specifically designed and built for this project; 6) data collection protocols and data processing techniques; 7) a quantitative summary of the collected data, and a discussion of some sample results, including match-up analyses for the currently operational ocean color sensors, namely MERIS, SeaWiFS, and MODIS; and 8) preliminary results of the vicarious radiometric calibration of MERIS, including a tentative uncertainty budget. The results of this match-up analysis allow performance comparisons of various ocean color sensors to be performed, demonstrating the ability of the BOUSSOLE activity, i.e., combining a dedicated platform and commercial-off-the-shelf instrumentation, to provide data qualified to monitor the quality of ocean color products on the long term.

Description: During the passage of a cold front in March 2002, bio-optical properties examined in coastal waters impacted by the Mississippi River indicated westward advective flows and increasing river discharge containing a larger nonalgal particle content contributed significantly to surface optical variability. A comparison of seasonal data from three cruises indicated spectral models of absorption and scattering to be generally consistent with other coastal environments, while their parameterization in terms of chlorophyll a concentration (Chl) showed seasonal variability. The exponential slope of the colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) averaged 0.0161 plus or minus 0.00054 per nanometer, and for nonalgal absorption it averaged 0.011 per nanometer with deviations from general trends observed due to anomalous water properties. Although the phytoplankton specific absorption coefficients varied over a wide range (0.02 to 0.1 square meters (mg Chl) sup -1)) being higher in offshore surface waters, values of phytoplankton absorption spectra at the SeaWiFS wavebands were highly correlated to modeled values. The normalized scattering spectral shapes and the mean spectrum were in agreement to observations in other coastal waters, while the backscattering ratios were on average lower in phytoplankton dominated surface waters (0.0101 plus or minus 0.002) and higher in near-bottom waters (0.0191 plus or minus 0.0045) with low Chl. Average percent differences in remote sensing reflectance R (sub rs) derived form modeled and in-eater radiometric measurements were highest in the blue wavebands (52%) and at sampling stations with a ore stratified water column. Estimates of Chl and CDOM absorption derived from SeaWiFS images generated using regional empirical algorithms were highly correlated to in situ data.

Description: The Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) is operated by NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research as part of its Coral Reef Watch program in response to the deteriorating global state of coral reef and related benthic ecosystems. In addition to sea surface temperatures (SSTs), the two most important parameters used by the CREWS network in generating coral reef bleaching alerts are 1) wind speed and direction and 2) photosynthetically available radiation (PAR). NASA remote sensing products that can enhance CREWS in these areas include SST and PAR products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and wind data from the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT). CREWS researchers are also interested in chlorophyll, chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and salinity. Chlorophyll and CDOM are directly available as NASA products, while rainfall (an available NASA product) can be used as a proxy for salinity. Other potential NASA inputs include surface reflectance products from MODIS, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, and Landsat. This report also identifies NASA-supported ocean circulation models and products from future satellite missions that might enchance the CREWS DST.

Description: The plate boundary between Africa and Eurasia represents an interesting geodynamical region characterized by a complex pattern of deformation. First-order scientific problems regarding the existence of rigid blocks within the plate boundary, the present-day activity of the Calabrian slab and the regional crust and upper mantle structures are still awaiting for a better understanding. For answering these open questions, INGV deployed a permanent, integrated and real-time monitoring GPS network (RING) all over Italy. The RING is now constituted by about 120 stations. The CGPS sites, acquiring at 1Hz and 30s sampling rate, are integrated either with broad band and very broad band seismometers or accelerometers to improve the monitoring of the background seismicity in the Apennines seismic belts and to better constrain the geometry of the seismogenic structures. Most of the network is connected to the acquisition centre (located in Rome and duplicated in Grottaminarda) by a satellite system (VSAT), while the remaining sites transmit data by Internet and classical phone connections. The satellite data transmission and the integration with seismic instruments makes this network one of the most innovative CGPS networks in Europe. Either the heterogeneity of the installed instrumentation and of the transmission types or the continuous increasing number of stations needed a central monitoring and acquisition system. Thus, in Grottaminarda, for the seismic monitoring we chose to use the open source system Earthworm, developed by USGS, with which we store waveforms and implement automatic localization of the seismic events occurred in the area. As most of the GPS sites are acquired by means of Nanometrics satellite technology, we decided to develop a new software (GpsView), written in Java, to monitor the state of health of those CGPS. This software receives GPS data from NaqsServer (Nanometrics acquisition system) and outputs information about the sites (i.e. position, number of satellites) in real-time. Furthermore, we developed also a web-based application for the management of the data and the metadata relative to the GPS sites of the RING. We present (a) the existing and planned CGPS site distribution, (b) the technological description of the seismic and GPS data acquisitions in Grottaminarda INGV centre, and (c) the first results of CGPS data analysis.

Description: Unpublished

Description: San Francisco, USA

Description: 1.1. TTC - Monitoraggio sismico del territorio nazionale

Description: 1.9. Rete GPS nazionale

Description: open

Description: Per meglio comprendere e monitorare i processi sismo-tettonici in atto nell’area Euro- Mediterranea, negli ultimi decenni si è assistito allo sviluppo in quest’area di oltre un centinaio di reti di monitoraggio sismico a terra. Tuttavia il monitoraggio sismico della regione Euro- Mediterranea tramite sole stazioni a terra è di difficile attuazione; numerosi sono infatti gli eventi sismici con epicentro in mare. L’effetto dell’insufficiente copertura in molte aree prevalentemente offshore delle reti sismiche produce un immagine della sismicità Mediterranea incompleta e distorta. Uno degli obbiettivi del progetto NERIES, attività NA6, è l’estensione offshore delle reti sismiche tramite l’impiego di OBS (Ocean Bottom Seismometer). Nel 2007, all’interno del suddetto progetto, l’OBS Lab (CNT, INGV) ha deposto tre OBS in prossimità di uno dei tre siti chiave proposti da ESONET (European Sea Floor Observatory Network) nello Ionio Meridionale (D’Anna et al., 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d). Lo Ionio Meridionale e le aree limotrofe, sismicamente molto attive sono attualmente soggette ad una rapida deformazione; i diversi modelli geodinamici del Mediterraneo propongono per la crosta ionica una probabile origine oceanica (Catalano et al., 2001; Finetti e Del Ben, 2005). L’attività sismica, perlopiù superficiale, è in gran parte localizzata lungo gli archi Ellenico, Egeo e Calabro, la Sicilia orientale e la scarpata Ibleo-Maltese. La distribuzione della sismicità e l’evoluzione geodinamica dell’area ionica sono in gran parte determinati dalla convergenza della placca Africana e Euroasiatica (Finetti e Del Ben, 2005). La prima campagna OBS ha permesso di raccogliere dati sismologici per oltre 9 mesi da tre diversi OBS; la seconda conclusasi nel febbraio 2009 ha aggiunto al database sismologico della stazione OBS A3 ulteriori 10 mesi di registrazione in continuo. Durante le 2 campagne l’array di OBS ha registrato oltre 1000 eventi, di cui circa 200 telesismi, 800 eventi regionali e oltre 200 eventi non localizzati da stazioni a terra. In Fig. 1 sono riportati i segnali di velocità e di pressione registrati dalla stazione OBS A3, di un evento telesismico di magnitudo pari a 7.2 con epicentro nella regione dello Xinjiang-Xizang. In una fase preliminare si è voluto valutare l’effetto di queste stazioni sulle performance di localizzazione della Rete Sismica Nazionale applicando il metodo SNES (Seismic Network Evaluation through Simulation, D’Alessandro et al., 2009). Per il calcolo delle mappe SNES è stato stimato il valore medio del rumore sismico sulla componente verticale delle tre stazioni OBS. Le mappe dell’errore sulla stima dell’ipocentro di Fig. 2 sono state calcolate come il raggio della sfera equivalente dell’ellisoide di confidenza al 95% (Radious of Equivalent Spere, RES), per magnitudo pari a 2.5 e 3, fissando la profondità ipocentrale a 15 km. La mappa di Fig. 2 mostra come un’estesa area dello Ionio meridionale risulti meglio coperta in seguito all’installazione delle tre stazioni OBS; in particolare è evidente un notevole miglioramento del RES che in alcune aree prima non coperte scende sotto il valore di 2 km. Gli eventi ben localizzati dalle reti dell’INGV, dell’EMSC, dell’USGS e dalla rete sismica nazionale greca sono stati utilizzati per determinare gli azimuth delle componenti orizzontali degli OBS attraverso un’analisi di correlazione dei back-azimuth ottenuti tramite l’analisi di polarizzazione dei segnali 3C degli OBS e i corrispondenti back-azimuth dedotti dalle loro localizzazioni (D’Alessandro et al., 2008). Successivamente l’analisi di polarizzazione e lo studio dei tempi di arrivo delle onde P ed S ha permesso di effettuare una localizzare approssimativa di molti degli eventi non localizzati dalla rete sismica nazionale. Per un’accurata stima della distanza epicentrale è stato necessario ricavare un modello ottimale di velocità delle onde P ed S per l’area in esame. Per definire un modello 1D di velocità delle onde P per l’area ionica, sono stati invertiti i tempi di arrivo di oltre 300 fasi P degli eventi regionali registrati. Dell’intero dataset sono stati scelti solamente gli eventi con RMS inferiore a 0.3s e errore standard di localizzazione minore di 3.0 km. Sulla base delle informazioni attualmente disponibili per l’area del bacino ionico e delle aree circostanti, sono stati inoltre scartati gli eventi con ipocentro superficiale in aree intensamente deformate; per queste aree sono state selezionati solo gli evensorgente alla stazione è stato risolto in maniera analitica per i raggi rifratti e tramite la tecnica dello “shooting” per le onde dirette. Nella soluzione del problema diretto è stata considerata anche la profondità delle stazioni. Il modello di velocità delle onde S è stato ottenuto invertendo le curve di dispersione del modo fondamentale delle onde di Rayleigh. L’inversione congiunta dei tempi di viaggio e delle curve di dispersione ha permesso di definire un unico modello 1D di velocità. Il modello ottenuto e i risultati della localizzazione saranno esposti durante il convegno.

Description: Published

Description: Trieste

Description: 2.5. Laboratorio per lo sviluppo di sistemi di rilevamento sottomarini

Description: open