Vol. 21: The Heritage of SeaWiFS: A Retrospective on the CZCS NIMBUS Experiment Team (NET) Program.
Citation:
Acker, J.G., 1994: The Heritage of SeaWiFS: A Retrospective on the CZCS NIMBUS Experiment Team (NET)
Program. NASA Tech. Memo. 104566, Vol. 21, S.B. Hooker and E.R. Firestone, Eds., NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, 44 pp., (in press).
The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) mission is based on the scientific heritage of
the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), a proof-of-concept instrument carried on the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) NIMBUS-7 environmental satellite for the purpose of measuring upwelling
radiance from the ocean surface. The CZCS mission provided the first observations of ocean color from space,
and over the mission lifetime of 1978Ð1986, allowed oceanographers an initial opportunity to observe the
variable patterns of global biological productivity. One of the key elements of the CZCS mission was the
formation of the CZCS NIMBUS Experiment Team (NET), a group of optical physicists and biological
oceanographers. The CZCS NET was designated to validate the accuracy of the CZCS radiometric
measurements and to connect the instrument's measurements to standard measures of oceanic biological
productivity and optical seawater clarity. In the period following the cessation of CZCS observations, some of
the insight and experience gained by the CZCS NET activity has dissipated as several proposed follow-on
sensors failed to achieve active status. The SeaWiFS mission will be the first dedicated orbital successor to
CZCS; it in turn precedes observations by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) of the
Earth Observing System (EOS). Since the CZCS NET experience is an important model for SeaWiFS and
MODIS surface truth efforts, this document is intended to provide a comprehensive review of the validation of
oceanographic data for the first orbital ocean color sensor mission. This document also summarizes the history
of the CZCS NET activities. The references listed in the Bibliography are a listing of published scientific
research which relied upon the CZCS NET algorithms, or research which was conducted on the basis of CZCS
mission elements.
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