Autonomous Radiometric Validation of PACE’s OCI in the Gulf of Mexico

We achieve PACE validation with hyperspectral (e.g., HyperPro II water optical profiling and 4STAR-B atmospheric transmittance) and aligned contemporary radiometric measurements (C-AIR water-leaving radiance from aircraft and C-OPS water optical profiling). The latter contemporary ocean color detectors have much higher dynamic range than OCI. This unique combination of airborne and surface and profiling instrumentation and water sampling can provide high-accuracy validation of the PACE mission sensors in a globally-representative range of oceanic conditions.

The repeated airborne observations can provide the calibration and validation over larger areas and time by collecting measurements over a larger spatial domain during a satellite overpass and different seasons, overcoming the problem of limited spatial coverage presented by using solely ship stations and moored buoy systems.