New low cost technological developments for sea monitoring: satellite "Sea Truth" and model validation

Abstract

Operational forecasting is becoming an important tool for modern management and protection of the oceans and their living resources. It needs multidisciplinary input data, whose collection is hampered by two main factors: cost and technology. Satellites provide synoptic sea surface data, but their measurement validation still requires much sea-truth data as possible. Moreover marine “in situ” measures are expansive both for the platforms, ships and buoys, and for the measure instruments. In order to face these problems, initiatives (e.g. VOS) have been developed to use opportunity platforms and to promote the development of low-cost and user-friendly technologies. This work shows new cost-effective technological developments to provide a useful strategy for surface and sub-surface marine monitoring.