Toward GOCI-III Improvement from the Experiences of GOCI-II

Abstract

In this study, we discuss the development direction and requirements for the 3rd Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI-III) based on experiences with the previous GOCI (June 2010 to March 2021) and GOCI-II (March 2020 to now). The GOCI and GOCI-II are the world's first geostationary ocean color mission series, then were able to observe diurnal variations of the ocean environment for the first time. Since the development of the GOCI-II, the ocean color remote sensing community has significantly improved the algorithms and observation technics. Therefore, the development direction for GOCI-III also needs to consider the application of next-generation ocean color remote sensing approaches. In particular, the addition of polarization bands can enhance the accuracy of ocean-color products when absorbing aerosols occurs, which has been regarded as the most challenging issue in ocean-color remote sensing. Furthermore, the addition of spectral bands, adjustments to the central wavelength, and the bandwidth, in comparison to GOCI-II, could lead to overall improvements in observation capabilities and expansion of environmental information. While this study proposes the specification for GOCI-III aims to lead best performance and usability, the final specifications can be modified during the development progress by considering practical design restrictions and cost.