Background

The European Space Agency organised a joint MERIS and (A)ATSR workshop to provide scientists and data users with the opportunity to present first-hand and up-to-date results from their on-going research activities including discussions on scientific applications, data quality, development of new algorithms and data products. Of specific interest was the synergistic use of the data from these instruments for operational applications, primarily in the marine environment and the coastal zones, but also for applications over land and the atmosphere.

The workshop was held at ESRIN, Frascati, Italy from 26-30 September 2005.

Participation

The Workshop was attended by ESA Principal Investigators, scientists and students working in the field of remote sensing of open ocean, coastal waters, land surfaces, and atmospheric sciences, and to representatives from national, European and international space agencies and Value Adding Industry.

Objectives

The workshop had as goals:

• to provide a forum for ESA Principal Investigators to present results of AO and Category 1 projects


• to inform MERIS and (A)ATSR data users about instrument performance and product quality


• to present the evolution of the Envisat services for MERIS and (A)ATSR data (ordering, dissemination, reprocessing)


• to cover various aspects of the data analysis and interpretation


• to initiate and encourage close collaboration between MERIS and (A)ATSR user groups


• to demonstrate the scientific capabilities of the MERIS and (A)ATSR measurements and how they compare with other sensor data


• to assess the usefulness of available data analysis tools


• to formulate recommendations for algorithm development and product upgrade