Regional satellite-derived ocean color measurements from the International Space Station (ISS) HICO instrument, processed to version 2018.0. The dataset provides calibrated, atmospherically corrected ocean-optics measurements and derived biogeophysical variables. It was last updated in the NASA Earthdata system on 2014-09-13.
Use Cases
- Modeling primary productivity based on chlorophyll concentration (chlor_a, chl_ocx).
- Studying light penetration in the upper ocean based on the diffuse attenuation coefficient (Kd_490).
- Analyzing aerosol influence on ocean color signals based on aerosol optical thickness (aot_868) and Angstrom exponent (angstrom).
- Estimating carbon pools based on calcite (pic) and particulate organic carbon (poc) concentrations.
Strengths
- Provides multiple derived biogeophysical variables, including chlorophyll, carbon pools, and aerosol properties.
- Data is calibrated and atmospherically corrected, which is a standard requirement for ocean color analysis.
- Includes processing flags (l2_flags) to aid in data quality assessment.
Limitations
- Last updated 2014-09-13 23:59:59; freshness should be verified.
- Row count and spatial/temporal coverage are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Provenance
- Source
- nasa_earthdata, OB_CLOUD
- Collection Method
- Satellite remote sensing from the ISS HICO instrument, processed to Level-2.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2014-09-13 23:59:59.
- Geography
- Regional (coverage implied by 'Regional' in title and ocean focus).