Abstract. This paper presents the Mediterranean Ocean Colour Observing System in the framework of the growing demand of near real-time data emerging within the operational oceanography international context. The main issues related to the satellite operational oceanography are tied to the following: (1) the near real-time ability to track data flow uncertainty sources; (2) in case of failure, to provide backup solutions to end-users; and (3) to scientifically assess the product quality. We describe the major scientific and technological steps made to develop, maintain and improve the operational system and its products. A method for assessing the near real-time product quality is developed and its limitation discussed. Main results are concerned with the degradation, starting from mid-2010, of the MODIS Aqua channel at 443 nm with its successive recovery thanks to the new calibration scheme implemented in the recently released SeaDAS version 6.4. The product validation analysis highlights that SeaWiFS chlorophyll product over the Mediterranean Sea is the best performing in comparison with those of MODIS and MERIS. Despite their general good agreement with in situ observations, MODIS-and MERIS-derived chlorophyll present a slight and systematic underestimation of the in situ counter part. The most relevant implications induced by these results are discussed from an operational point of view.

Abstract. The Mediterranean near-real-time multi-sensor processing chain has been set up and is operational in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). This work describes the main steps operationally performed to enable single ocean colour sensors to enter the multi-sensor processing applied to the Mediterranean Sea by the Ocean Colour Thematic Assembly Centre within CMEMS. Here, the multi-sensor chain takes care of reducing the inter-sensor bias before data from different sensors are merged together. A basin-scale in situ bio-optical dataset is used both to fine tune the algorithms for the retrieval of phytoplankton chlorophyll and the attenuation coefficient of light, Kd, and to assess the uncertainty associated with them. The satellite multi-sensor remote sensing reflectance spectra agree better with the in situ observations than those of the single sensors. Here, we demonstrate that the operational multi-sensor processing chain compares sufficiently well with the historical in situ datasets to also confidently be used for reprocessing the full data time series.

This paper presents the Mediterranean Ocean Colour Observing System in the framework of the growing demand of near real time data emerging within the operational oceanography international context. The main issues related with the satellite operational oceanography are tied to (1) the near real-time ability to track data flow uncertainty sources; (2) in case of failure, to provide backup solutions to end-users; and (3) to scientifically assess the product quality. We describe the major scientific and technological steps made to develop, maintain and improve the operational system and its products. A method for assessing the near real-time product quality is developed and its limitation discussed. Main results are concerned with the degradation, starting from mid-2010, of the MODIS Aqua channel at 443 nm. The product validation analysis highlights that SeaWiFS chlorophyll product over the Mediterranean Sea is the best performing in comparison with those of MODIS and MERIS. Despite their general good agreement with in situ observations, MODIS- and MERIS-derived chlorophyll present a slight and systematic underestimation of their in situ counter part. The most relevant implications induced by these results are discussed from an operational point of view

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Abstract. This work describes the main processing steps operationally performed to enable single ocean colour sensors to enter the multi-sensor chain for the Mediterranean Sea of Ocean Colour Thematic Assembling Centre. Here, the multi-sensor chain takes care of reducing the inter-sensor bias before data from different sensors are merged together. The basin-scale in situ bio-optical dataset is used both to fine-tuning the algorithms for the retrieval of phytoplankton chlorophyll and attenuation coefficient of light, Kd, and to assess the uncertainty associated with them. The satellite multi-sensor remote sensing Reflectance spectra better agree with the in situ observations than that of the single sensors, and are comparable with the ESA-OC-CCI multi-sensor product, highlighting the importance of reducing the inter-sensor bias. The Mediterranean near-real-time multi-sensor processing chain has been set up and is operational in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service.