SUMMARY CONCLUSION 



Recognizing that a series of earth resources technology satellites 

 will be orbited in the early 1970's, this conference recommends that the 

 quantitative measurement of the color of the oceans should be one of the 

 prime objectives of one or more of the on-board remote detection systems. 



We believe that such measurements, in addition to differentiating 

 between water masses, will assist in the assessment of oceanic biological 

 productivity, bottom topography and related hazards to navigation, coastal 

 ecology of the bottom biota, and certain kinds of water pol 1 ut ion . Such 

 an assessment is essential to management of oceanic resources on a national 

 and world-wide basis. 



It Is recommended that: 



1. The satellite color measurement system meet the following 



resolution specifications: 



1 mile spatially 

 100 angstrom spectrally 

 10 days temporal ly 



The required sensitivity will vary over fairly wide limits, being lowest 



over coastal areas and highest over the high seas. Color contrasts to be 



found over the open ocean are exceedingly small and are further degraded by 



atmospheric transmission. Although further investigation will be needed to 



specify the required sensitivity with certainty, present indications are that 



this is physically attainable and can be achieved in the next few years by 



reasonable advancement of the art. More detailed recommendations of 



specifications are presented In the conference review publication. 



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