Seed questions

In order to help stimulate discussions for the various sessions, seed questions have been prepared in advance and will be addressed during the Round Table discussion and in the thematic working sessions. They are posted below,  prior to the meeting in order to prepare for the discussion.

MONDAY Round table Session 1: Status of Envisat, Data Distribution, Calibration, Processing, Validation

• Is the method for ordering MERIS products sufficient?

• Documentation available at present: User Handbook, ATBD, reference model document, validation protocols document.
-What kind of documentation is missing?
-Are these documents presented in a form that is readable for normal users?
-What kind of continuously updated information is expected to be on the web?

• What are ESA’s plans to re-process early data (or the entire data archive) with the latest version of the software?

• How can the MERIS observing program be best structured to demonstrate MERIS’ flexible spectral band capability

• Are you satisfied with the current data distribution and distribution policy?

MONDAY Round table Session 2: Atmospheric Products Validation

TUESDAY Round table Session 3: MERIS Water Products Validation

• Are you interested in Level-1b or only in Level 2 products? Which products are most used?

• Are you satisfied with the geophysical “products”?

• Are you waiting for Level-3 products? Which products would you expect?

• Are there any algorithms for new biogeochemical variables or parameters that should be developed?

TUESDAY Session 4: MERIS Land Products Validation

WEDNESDAY Session 5: Coastal and Inland Waters

WEDNESDAY Session 6: Land Cover Monitoring

WEDNESDAY Session 7: Vegetation Monitoring

• Are there new Land products (i.e., chlorophyll) that would be desirable and can be derived from MERIS data and that are not available from any other source with similar accuracy and spatial / temporal coverage?

• How can the MERIS user community as a whole contribute to the validation / update / improvement of MERIS products?

• How can we stimulate cooperation between groups to take advantage of the particular expertises in different fields of Land science and applications?

THURSDAY Session 8: New Methods

THURSDAY:  Splinter Sessions (MERIS Water, Land, Atmosphere)

Seed questions for the MERIS water splinter session

 Products

• Are MERIS products accurate and reliable enough for :
- oceanic Case 1 waters applications?
- coastal and inland waters applications?
 
• What kind of error / uncertainty map is required for each product on a pixel-by-pixel basis, or are information about mean errors for certain areas or types of water sufficient?.

• The original case 2 water products are optical components, i.e. scattering by all particles, absorption by pigments, absorption by gelbstoff + absorption by bleached particles. Presently they are converted into concentrations using simple conversion factors or equations.

• Should the product be presented as optical components, or, as now, as concentrations along with the conversions factors so that the user has to go back to the optical components and then apply his conversion factors?

• Does the user prefer the directional water leaving radiance reflectance as now, or the normalized Rlw but with the possibility to loose the angle information and a loss of accuracy if assumptions go into the procedure for computing the normalized reflectance?

• Is the kind of flags ok or are other flags and confidence indicators missing?

• Is the existence of 2 pigment products (pig1 and pig2) confusing?

• Level 3 products: does the user expect a cloud interpolated or simply a cloud-masked product?

• Are there any other products of interest, such as k490 or the 1% down welling attenuation depth or the 1% signal depth?

• Is there a better way to do atmospheric correction to improve accuracy of surface reflectances?

•  Are regional algorithms required which could be implemented also or only in the BEAM toolbox?

•  There exists the possibility to include neural networks for case 2 waters other then the standard as now, e.g. for red tides, estuarine waters, special regions etc. Is this requested for the ground processor or alternatively for BEAM?

• What kinds of software tools or functions in existing tools are missing (existing tools: BEAM, e.g. for ESOV exact time of overflight for a specific location)?

• Are tools or extensions of tools (BEAM) of interest to merge information from different instruments or satellites?

• Is there a general validation report expected, rather than a compilation of individual non-reviewed assessments?

• Do users want possibilities/facilities to cross calibrate their instruments/procedures for validation?

• Which products do we need in the future?

• What kind of future missions / instruments do we need for our research and applications development?

Seed questions for the MERIS land splinter session

Chair: Moreno/Verstraete; 90 min
 

• Are users satisfied with the standard products already offered? What else is needed?

•  How do MERIS products compare with similar products available from other satellite systems?

•  Are pre-processing steps (geometric / atmospheric corrections) satisfactorily handled in the creation of Level 2 products or are there still major difficulties to derive biophysical information from MERIS data? Are new or different data analysis tools required?

•  Are there new recommendations for algorithm development, new applicationsd or new products that are required systematically? Will these require a different or updated type of sensor in the future?

•  What are the foreseeable needs of the research and application communities in terms of medium resolution space-borne sensors?

•  How can we improve the use of MERIS data in research / application projects not funded by ESA (i.e., EU or national projects)?

•  How do the MERIS space and ground segments fare with respect to alternative sources of data, e.g., SeaWiFS, MODIS and VEGETATION?

•  What will ESA be offering to the European research and application communities in support of the many standard applications now relying on MERIS or similar sensors when that mission reaches the end of its useful lifetime?

Seed questions for the MERIS atmosphere splinter session

Chair: Fischer/Santer; 90 min
 

•  What can MERIS contribute to atmospheric research and applications?

• What is the main advantage and disadvantage of MODIS compared to MERIS atmospheric products?
a. Data quality (calibration and validation)
b. Data availability
c. Perspective of the mission (continuation)
d. ENVISAT (= AATSR, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY, ASAR, MWR)
 
•  How important is the high spatial resolution for atmospheric applications?
a. Water vapour
b Cloud properties
c. Cloud masking (also for land and coastal zone applications!!)
d. Aerosols

• How important is the development of new products?
a. Level 3 products
b. New geo-physical products

•  How important is the MERIS capability to change the spectral band setting

•  Can MERIS be a test bed for future missions?

•  Do we need a continuation of a MERIS-mission?

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry