The contribution of the ligurian sea off-shore observatory to the calibration and validation of remote sensed data

In order to improve ocean forecasts several efforts have been made to enhance the monitoring capability over the sea by means of remote acquisition methodology and fixed platforms. The exiguous number of observatories with the possibility to acquire long term data of atmospheric and ocean parameters and their low spatial coverage made difficult to obtain a real calibration and validation of the remote sensed data all over the seas. The W1-M3A offshore observing system moored in the Ligurian Sea has the capability to acquire long term time series of both atmospheric and oceanographic measurements and it represents a very useful platform to validate and calibrate remote sensed data. The proposed work deals with the most recent results achieved in the field of air-sea interactions phenomena, upper ocean layer variability, the contribution made to the evaluation of QuikSCAT products over the Ligurian Sea, and the comparison between in-situ measurements with ERA Interim analysis. © 2012 European Space Agency.