Validation Resources
Validating satellite ocean color data requires high-quality in situ optical measurements collected from the field. This page provides access to validation results and tools that compare satellite observations with coincident ground-truth measurements from oceanographic field campaigns.Validation datasets are sourced primarily from the SeaBASS archive, which includes data collected by NASA-funded researchers, voluntary contributions from the scientific community, and external sources such as AERONET ocean color (AERONET-OC).
Available Tools:
- Custom Validation Search: Search form for specific sensors to explore match-up datasets
- Direct Access (Run Query): Direct access to validation results using default search parameters
- PACE Validation Viewer: Interactive tool for dynamically visualizing satellite-in-situ match-up pairs (exploratory use; not official results) - Launch Viewer
This page is undergoing changes to reflect ongoing updates to these tools, and to improve access to them and their results.
| Sensor | Custom Validation Search | Rrs - Direct Access | Validation Viewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| PACE-OCI | Get Results | Get Results | Link |
| MODIS-Aqua | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| MODIS-Terra | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| VIIRS-SNPP | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| VIIRS-NOAA20 | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| OLCI-S3A | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| OLCI-S3B | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| SeaWiFS | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| MERIS | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| OCTS | Custom Search | Run Query | |
| CZCS | Custom Search | Run Query |
Disclaimer: Search results include all available match-ups for the particular sensor and product. Please be patient for these search results to complete as they take awhile (except for PACE-OCI) to query from a large database. You can narrow the results by performing a customized search and/or downloading the data from the results page.