Supporting Research 
Requirements 
Several types of supporting research were de- 
fined by the users’ panels to fully implement the 
applications defined by the commercial and opera- 
tional users and to realize research goals. The 
following objectives of some ongoing projects from 
the Navy's Research Program represent the type 
of research required to support future commercial 
and operational applications: 
® Develop general water-mass classification by 
coupling satellite-derived bio-optical data with 
sea-surface temperature data. 
® Study the biota using ocean-color properties. 
© Develop thermodynamic ocean models, includ- 
ing the absorption of solar heat by the oceans. 
(The absorption in the near-surface layer and 
the dissipation of this heat are partially con- 
trolled by the diffuse attenuation coefficient, k, 
of the water, measurable from SeaWiFS data.) 
® Examine ways of using data on integrated aero- 
sol distribution, which would be obtainable from 
SeaWiFS data. 
Three initiatives are proposed in the mission- 
support science plan for achieving oceano- 
graphic-research goals: 
© A sequence of cooperative international stud- 
les using high-resolution ocean-color observa- 
tions of an ocean basin to address stratified 
sampling issues 
| ®@ An expanded effort to improve bio-optical rela- 
tionships for the SeaWiFS band set and to de- 
velop and verify a physiologically based algo- 
rithm for productivity estimates 
¢ A global collection of SeaWiFS observations 
and production of composite moderate- 
resolution maps of pigments and primary pro- 
ductivity. 
SUMMARY 
User Requirements and 
Performance Goals 
Although the users' panels readily agreed on 
most requirements and sensor performance goals, 
three issues were debated at some length: revisit 
interval, number and location of the spectral 
bands, and data-dissemination requirements. 
The revisit-interval issue centered on assess- 
ing the value of data acquired at scan angles 
larger than about 30° to the two user communities 
since, currently, atmospheric effects make quantit- 
ative interpretation of these data infeasible. The 
research users, whose interests lie in quantitative 
interpretation, were satisfied with the first SeaWiFS 
design that had a +45° scan angle, providing 
every-other-day global coverage at the equator. 
However, the commercial and operational users 
demonstrated the great value of qualitative inter- 
pretation of imagery at scan angles greater than 
45° for their uses and the need for daily revisits to 
the same scene location. Since the effect on sen- 
sor design was slight, it was agreed that the base- 
line design would have a +58° scan angle in order 
to provide a daily revisit interval. 
The baseline SeaWiFS spectral bands and 
radiometric performance requirements given in 
Table A-1 represent a consensus that balances 
the needs of both commercial and operational and 
research data users. Other important operating 
characteristics of the sensor are also presented in 
the table. 
With respect to the data dissemination issue, 
most commercial and operational users need to re- 
ceive data once a day within 24 hours or less of 
the time of acquisition, and major user groups re- 
quire daily, real-time reception. For example, the 
commercial fishing fleet needs to receive the data 
in near real time with relatively inexpensive equip- 
ment that is small in size, implying reception by a 
nondirectional antenna. Potential naval use would 
require daily, real-time reception in a format com- 
patible with their systems (e.g., the Tactical Envi- 
ronmental Support System (TESS) and/or the AN/ 
SMQ-11 receiver-recorder sets). A number of ap- 
plications envisioned by the value-added industry 
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