Format of the course

The course is divided into two parts. The first part of the proposed lectures will provide theoretical knowledge on marine optics allowing the trainees to understand how light is interacting with the optically significant components of seawater and how the assessment of water bio-optical properties can provide quantitative and qualitative information on the marine particulate and dissolved matter pools.

These fundamentals will be complemented by practical sessions dedicated to the measurement of marine inherent optical properties and to computer-based exercises that will allow the trainees to understand the theoretical concepts previously presented and better comprehend the natural variability of marine optical properties as well as the interests of using these optical proxies for deriving biogeochemical information on marine environments.

The second part of the lectures (that will take advantage of the optical fundamentals introduced in the first lectures) will provide a comprehensive overview of ocean color remote sensing science including the most recent developments. Specifically, these lectures will provide knowledge on the different steps required for developing and exploiting the information provided by ocean color remote observation, from the fundamental principles of ocean color to the possible applications of ocean color data in both open ocean waters and optically complex environments such as the coastal waters.

Practical sessions will allow the trainees to learn how to gather ocean color data from the different international data bases, how to visualize and perform basics and advanced spatial and temporal analyses for exploiting ocean color archives. Small research projects will be proposed to the trainees in order to apply the information provided for realistic scientific problematic.