OVERVIEW OF THE GEOSTATIONARY OCEAN COLOR IMAGER (GOCI) SERIES

Abstract

The ocean color represents characteristics of underwater colored constituents such as phytoplankton, inorganic suspended particles, detritus, and dissolved organic matter. Remotely sensing the ocean color using visible (VIS) to near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths at a satellite level has successfully extracted oceanic environmental information on a large spatial and temporal scale. The initial phase of the ocean color mission focused on monitoring chlorophyll-a (chla) concentration, which indicates an abundance of phytoplankton in the ocean. This monitoring has made the study of global-scale biogeochemical dynamics and cycles possible. The growth of ocean color remote sensing techniques has involved extending coastal environment monitoring and its diurnal variations. The first Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), operated from June 2010 to March 2021, has provided the regional synoptic perspectives of coastal and open ocean phenomena around the Northeast Asia Seas. It is the first space-borne ocean color sensor to take daytime images with unprecedented temporal resolution. On the successful operation of GOCI, the second GOCI (GOCI-II) has operated since 2020 with enhanced spatial and spectral resolution. In this work, we first introduce the GOCI series and their current status. Then, we overview the GOCI series’s primary ocean-color products and their applications. Lastly, we suggest a next-generation geostationary ocean color mission based on the lessons of GOCI and GOCI-II experiences.