The Multichannel Ocean Color Sensor (MOCS)

The MOCS is an imaging spectroradiometer with a sensitivity that matches the light upwelling from open bodies of water. Twenty contiguous spectral channels in the visible are recorded in a line scanning mode from an aircraft. The system also supports a thermal infrared radiometer and will accept input from a position location system. The sensor in the MOCS system is an image dissector tube. A spectral curvature algorithm was developed. No atmospheric correction to the data is needed for low flying aircraft gathering chlorophyll data using this algorithm. Although the MOCS is now about 15 years old, because its response has been so stable, its data recording system was upgraded to the system used by the Aircraft Oceanographic Lidar where possible. The MOCS has been a reliable instrument for recording ocean color from low flying aircraft. As NASA enters the next period of ocean color investigations from space, such a device can play an important role in calibration of the space instrument, as well as provide support for programs developing the next generation of spaceborne devices.