WHAT's CURRENTLY GOING ON WITH BOUSSOLE ? |
Last BOUSSOLE cruise, 29th November 2023
The B#261 cruise closes the time-series of monthly surveys at the Boussole site that was started in July 2001. Special thanks go the crew and captains of the R/V Tethys II for their invaluable support.
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Mooring recovery, 9th August 2023
After about 4 year of deployment the buoy lower superstructure and the fulll mooring line was definitively recovered on August çth with the help of the R/V Tethys II during the B#257 cruise.
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Buoy XXII recovery, 11th July 2023
After about 1 year of deployment the buoy upper superstructure was definitively recovered on July 11th with the help of the IDEAL IV and Papetee ships plus the Villefranche-sur-Mer Port Authorities. Images of the buoy's last trip are visible in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery. About 5 Gb of new raw data were collected and will be made available in the next months. No more buoy data are being collected after July 11th. Special thanks go to all people that maintained one of the longest bio-optical time series ever collected in the open ocean and to our sponsors.
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Boussole #250 cruise, 11th January 2023
On january 2023 the 250th BOUSSOLE monthly cruise was realized with mild weather conditions and excellent visibility that guaranteed nice colours at sunrise. The cruise report is available in the usual archive, and some pictures are visible in the dedicated photo gallery. The monthly cruises #251 to #261 are scheduled for 2023 before the programme will arrive to its end.
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Buoy XXII launch, 30th June-1st July 2022
The rotation of the buoy upper superstructure took place on June 30th and July 1st with the help of the GGIX ship and the Villefranche-sur-Mer Port Authorities. Pictures of the buoy loading are visible in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery.
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Buoy XXII test, 5th April 2022
Tests of the buoy system are still in progress, pictures of radiometers intercomparison can be found in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery.
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Buoy XXII test, 23th February 2022
Intensive tests of the buoy system in artificial seawater are in progress, pictures can be found in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery.
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20 years of BOUSSOLE cruises, 12th-13th July 2021
The BOUSSOLE #232 cruise on board the R/V Tethys II was carried out in July 2021, 20 years after the first monthly cruise of the time-series took place on board the same R/V. Pictures from the mission are visible in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery. This achievement would have not been possible without the contribution of many people, the support of the French Oceanographic Fleet and particularly Captains and crew of Tethys II.
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CCOS OC-SVC KO, 3rd february 2021
Today the Kick Off meeting of the Climatological Characterisation of Ocean Sites for Ocean Color System Vicarious Calibration (CCOS OC-SVC) EUMETSAT project took place in form of a teleconference. IMEV will conduct the study to characterize a set of environmental variables of interest for OC-SVC at the BOUSSOLE site. The BOUSSOLE site was selected among other sites in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean as potential candidate to host the future Copernicus infrastructure for OC-SVC.
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Buoy XXI launch, 10th-11th August 2020
The rotation of the buoy upper superstructure took place on August 10th and 11th with the help of the GGIX ship and the Villefranche-sur-Mer Port Authorities. Pictures of the buoy loading are visible in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery.
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Restart of monthly cruises, 15th June 2020
The BOUSSOLE monthly cruise #219 was scheduled on board the R/V Sagitta III, after two canceled cruises due to lockdown in France. Unfortunately the ship suffered of engine overheating on one day and bad weather prevented departure on the second available day.
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Relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, 18th May 2020
Half-time reapprisal of the BOUSSOLE activities in the lab after the release of some retriction due to Covid-19 pandemic. In particular the preparation of the next buoy rotation with a new acquisition system can start. The new system is composed of three DL3 data-loggers from In-situ Marine Optics.
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Covid-19 restrictions, 16th March 2020
A lockdown is established in France to face the COvid-19 pandemic. The BOUSSOLE cruises and related activities requiring physical presence in the lab have to temporarily stop.
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ROSACE final meeting, 4th December 2019
The final meeting of the ROSACE project was held at EUMETSAT in Darmstadt in the presence of an international review panel. Results of the study are avilable on the EUMETSAT OC-SVC webpage.
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Mooring line rotation, 15th-18th September 2019
The rotation of the buoy lower superstructure and mooring line took place on September 15th to 18th with the help of the CASTOR 02 ship. The cruise report is available here and pictures of the mission are visible in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery.
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Buoy XX launch, 15th-16th February 2019
The rotation of the buoy upper superstructure took place with the help of the GGIX ship and the Villefranche-sur-Mer Port Authorities. Pictures of the buoy loading are visible in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery.
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Jerlow Award recipient: Annick Bricaud, XXth October 2018
Our collegue and friend Annick Bricaud received the Jerlow Award from The Oceanography Society during the Ocean Optics XXIV conference. The BOUSSOLE team wish to congratulate and warmly thank Annick for her contribution to the set up and developement of the BOUSSOLE project.
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ROSACE, 7th September 2018
The ROSACE proposal lead by IMEV in collaboration with ACRI-ST, testoCIMEL Electronique, HCMR, NPL and Tartu Observatory, was selected by EUMETSAT to provide a preliminary design of the future Copernicus Ocean Color infrastructure dedicated to System Vicarious Calibration, OC-SVC. The proposal builds on the twenty years experience acquired with the BOUSSOLE project.
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FICE-AAOT, 8th-18th July 2018
The Fiducial Inter-Comparison Eperiment for Sentinel-3 took place in the Adriatic Sea in July 2018 to contemporary measure water color with several abow water system deplyed on the Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower and the BOUSSOLE C-OPS, deplyed on board the R/V Litus. More information on this intercomparison excercice are available on the FICE-AAOT webpage.
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LCE-1 Radiance Comparison, 18th-20th December 2017
The second stage of the SI-traceable Laboratory inter-comparison Experiment, LCE-1, was organized by the UK National Physical Laboratory as a round robin with two radiance sensors being calibrated at individual facilities. Sensors were delivered at OOV on December 18th and measeurements performed in the local calibration facility, used for testing of BOUSSOLE radiometers among other activities.
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Buoy XIX launch, 1st-2nd June 2017
The rotation of the buoy upper superstructure took place on June 1st and 2nd with the help of the GGIX ship and the Villefranche-sur-Mer Port Authorities. A timelaps of the buoy loading is visible in the BOUSSOLE photo gallery (timelaps credits to Francis Louis).
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IOCS, 15-19th May 2017
The 3th International Ocean Science Meeting (IOCS 2017) will take place in Lisbon on 15th to 19th May. The BOUSSOLE team will present with a talk in the Ocean Color Vicarious Calibration Breakout Workshop and two poster presentations on hyperspectral radiometers characterisation and on wavelt analysis of IOPs time series.
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LCE-1 Irradiance Comparison, 3rd-7th April 2017
The first stage of the SI-traceable Laboratory inter-comparison experiment, LCE-1, was organized by and held at the UK National Physical Laboratory. This stage focused on the inter-comparison of irradiance sources and included FEL lamps used for testing of BOUSSOLE radiometers.
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FRM4SOC, 21-23th February 2017
The international workshop "Options for future European satellite OCR vicarious adjustment infrastructure for the Sentinel-3 OLCI and Sentinel-2 MSI series" was held in Frascati at the ESA/ESRIN headquarter as part of the Fiducial Reference Measurement for Satellite Ocean Color (FRM4SOC).project. Four talks about the BOUSSOLE rationale, data processing, uncertainty budget and status were given and are available on our publications section.
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CNRS journal , 29th November 2016
Laure Cailloce, CNRS journalist, was onboard the Tethys II during the September BOUSSOLE/DYFAMED cruise. A report of her experience side by side with the scientifc team, appeard on the Journal du CNRS.
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Ocean Optics XXIII, 23th-28th October 2016
Three posters presentation on different BOUSSOLE activities are presented at the Ocean Optics XXIII conference in Victoria (Canada). You can meet and discuss with our team at stands #15 #119 & #183 or acces the electronic version of the posters in our workshops section.
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Mooring rotation, 27th-28th August 2016
The rotation of the buoy lower superstructure took and mooring line took place on August 27th and 28th with the help of the CASTOR 02 ship and divers from JIMENEZ.CANTON company. Pictures of this mission are visible on the BOUSSOLE photo gallery. |
A new paper on RSE, 17th August 2016
A study on the retrieval od Colored Detrital Matter (CDM) from in situ and satellite ocean color measurements at the BOUSSOLE site has been published on Remote Sensing of Environment. You can access the manuscript on our publication section .
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Buoy XVIII launch, 6th-7th June 2016
The rotation of the buoy upper superstructure took place on June 6th and 7th with the help of the GGIX ship and the Villefranche-sur-Mer Port Authorities. Some pictures of the buoy load are visible on the BOUSSOLE photo gallery.
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Invited Researcher at LOV, 25th May 2016
Agnieszka Bialek, invited researcher from National Phisycal Laboratory (NPL, UK), starts her collaboration with the BOUSSOLE team. She will spent 10 months at LOV with the objective to refine and extended the uncertainty budget of the ocean color products derived from buoy radiometric measurements.
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Sea Glider recovery, 7th April 2016
After 1 month since the deployment, the Sea glider operated by the University of East Anglia (UK) was recovered recovere about 30 miles south west of BOUSSOLE.
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B#109 intermediate cruise, F3 Deployment 19th March 2016
A Wetlabs Inc. fluorometer from Collin Roesler (Bowdoin College, US) was deployed at 9 m depth on the buoy by divers. The instrument is a customized three channels ECO sensor measuring fluorescence at 440, 470, and 532 nm and is expected to provide useful information on the succession of phytoplankton groups at BOUSSOLE during the spring bloom.
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B#169 cruise, Sea Glider Deployment 7th March 2016
A Sea glider operated by the University of East Anglia (UK) was deployed at 43°25.89’N 7°49.57’E, close to BOUSSOLE and DYFAMED stations, to investigate changes in pH, pCO2, and mixed layer variability during the time of an expected spring bloom. Data measured by the glider will be compared with measurements collected by the nearby moorings and CTD casts undertaken during BOUSSOLE/DYFAMED cruises. This is the second test of two novel ISFET (ion-sensitive field-effect transistor) pH-pCO2 sensors developed at the University of Kyushu and the University of Tokyo (Japan).
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New ship, 2 December 2015
This day the SAGITTA III, recently delivered by the Dt-INSU to OOV for the replacement of the previous station boat, was used for the first time to go to the BOUSSOLE site for buoy maintenance. Pictures from this intermidiate cruise can be found at this link.
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35 m Secchi Depth, 11 November 2015
During the BOUSSOLE #165 cruise 35 m of water transparency were measured with a Secchi Disk at the BOUSSOLE site. This is the second deepest record at this station after the 40 m measured on February 2006.
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Invited researcher at LOV, 12-16th October 2015
Agnieszka Bialek, researcher at National Phisycal Laboratory (NPL, UK), spent some days at LOV to meet the BOUSSOLE team.
The objective of the visit was to plan future actions devoted to the assesment of an extended uncertainty budget of the ocean color products derived from buoy measurements.
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CNFC symposium, 11-12th June 2015
The 3th symposyum of the French oceanographic coastal fleet (CNFC) took place in Talence on June 11-12th.
This meeting is organized every 4 years to present the status of the research activities lead along the three french coastlines. The BOUSSOLE activities were summarised into a poster available at this link.
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Buoy XVII launch, 11th May 2015
The rotation of the buoy upper superstructure took place on May 11th with the help of the GGIX ship and port authorities. Pictures of the buoy load in the Villerfranche-sur-mer port are online.
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BIOCAREX Final Meeting, 6th March 2015
People involved in the BIOCAREX project met at UPMC, Paris, for its final meeting. BIOCAREX, started in 2011, and has been funded by the French ANR. It was entirely built around the BOUSSOLE project and involved 4 laboratories: LOV, LEGI, LOCEAN and Dt-INSU. BIOCAREX significantly contributed to improve the instrument fleet deployed at BOUSSOLE and the scientific exploitation of collected data.
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BOUSSOLE Inter Agency Meeting, 2nd March 2015
The meeting took place at UPMC, Paris. The status of the BOUSSOLE activities has been presented by the PI (D. Antoine) in the presence of the representatives of all the organisms supporting the project. The presentation was followed by a general discussion about the current and future activities of the project.
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Two-year position open, 23th January 2015
A two-year Environmental Data Analyst positon (PhD. level) for the BOUSSOLE bio-optics time series is now open. For further details please see the full announcement.
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100% success rate on 2014, 19th January 2015
During the B#155 cruise data of the last three months were downloaded from the buoy. These data completed, with a 100% of succes rate, the time series for 2014. For the first time of its short history the BOUSSOLE mooring was capable to collect data on every single day over a solar year.
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BOUSSOLE integrates MOOSE, 03th-04th November 2014
The Scientific Counsil of the Mediterranean Ocean Observing System for the Environment (MOOSE) took place in Marseille. The integration of BOUSSOLE into the MOOSE network was on the agenda. This new framework will facilitate and strengthen collaborations with other participants of the network.
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Ocean Optics XXII, 27th-31th October 2014
Five posters presentation on different BOUSSOLE activities are presented at the Ocean Optics XXII conference in Portland (ME). You can meet and discuss with our team at stands #2015 #2019 #2085 #2085 & #2122 or acces the electronic version of the posters in our workshops section.
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Fete de la Science, 10th-12th October 2014
This weekend public is invited to visit the Villefranche Oceanology Observatory (OOV) in occasion of the "Fete de la Science 2014". You can discover the research activities lead at OOV and communicate with scientist on many topics. The BOUSSOLE team will be present at the underwater robots stand to discuss how and why we measure the color of the oceans.
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A new paper on JGR, 18th September 2014
A study on the diel variability of the attenuation and backscattering coefficients at the BOUSSOLE site has been published on Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans. You can access this paper on our publication section.
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MERIS QWG#29, 9th-11th September 2014
The 29th MERIS Quality Working Group will be held at ESA/ESRIN headquarter (Frascati, Italy). The future of the vicarious calibration of satellite ocean color is among the topics of the meeting. A talk about some relevant improvements recently introduced on the BOUSSOLE data processing and Quality Control/Assurance protocols will be given on this occasion.
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New ESA contract, 4th September 2014
The new contract between UPMC and ESA has been signed. Support from ESA will insure the continuity of the BOUSSOLE project over the next two years. Future efforts of the BOUSSOLE team will be oriented to improve the uncertainty budget of the ocean color products derived from buoy measuremements and to improve the traceability of the buoy radiometers.
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B#149 cruise, 18th July 2014
On the last day of the Boussole monthly cruise the port authorities asked the Tethys II to participate to the rescue of a person fallen at sea from a sailing ship. Hopefully the person was found in good healt and taken onboard few hours after. An article appeared on the
Nice Matin to tell the happy ending story. |
Buoy XVI launch, 14th March 2014
A camera was installed on the 4 m buoy arm to take pictures of the flight from Villefranche-sur-mer to the BOUSSOLE site. A short video of this flight is available at this link. |
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