SeaBASS

NOMAD is a publicly available, global, high quality in situ bio-optical data set for use in ocean color algorithm development and satellite data product validation activities. Data products include coincident observations of water-leaving radiances and chlorophyll a concentrations, along with relevant metadata, such as the date, time, and coordinates of data collection and binary processing flags. Inherent optical properties (IOPs; e.g., spectral absorption and backscattering coefficients) and aerosol optical thicknesses have been or will be included in the near future. The entire dataset is available via a digital text file provided below under Downloads. Additional background details, such as the motivation for creating such a data set, and a historical perspective of such data sets, are provided in the Werdell and Bailey reference listed below.

NOMAD is available for research uses only. It was compiled by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group at Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, USA, using generous data contributions from the ocean color research community. Source bio-optical data are available online via a suite of SeaBASS Search Engines. Optimum interpolation (OI) sea surface temperature (SST) data were acquired from the NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center. ETOPO2 water depths were acquired from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center. NOMAD Data access and use are governed by the SeaBASS Data Access Policy. Please direct comments, questions, and identified outliers to the SeaBASS Administrator.