SCOR Working Group 150

Translation of Optical Measurements into particle Content, Aggregation & Transfer (TOMCAT)

Chair(s)
Sari Giering (UK)
Other Full Members
Sünnje Basedow (Norway), Adrian Burd (USA), Lionel Guidi (France), Morten Iversen (Germany), George Jackson (USA), Catarina Marcolin (Brazil), Klas Ove Möller (Germany), Sandy Thomalla (South Africa), and Tom Trull (Australia)
Associate Members
Nathan Briggs (France), Emma Cavan (UK), Louise Darroch (UK), Dhugal Lindsay (Japan), Andrew McDonnell (USA), and Uta Passow (USA)
Reporter
Wee Cheah
Terms of Reference
  1. Review current devices that optically measure particles and document the capabilities and limitations of each device.

  2. Make vocabularies more transparent and interoperable using international standards.

  3. Define key parameters for interpretation of the optical information and recommend which optical measurements are useful for characterizing particle type, interactions, and export.

  4. Evaluate various techniques and algorithms for the conversion of optical observations into particle type, size, concentration, mass, composition, and fluxes, and recommend ways of improving our understanding of the relationships between these properties.

  5. Promote sharing of software examples and codes, placed on a public repository.

  6. Improve the visiblilty and usage of data by hosting an inventory of published datasets.

Approved
December 2015
Completed
October 2023
Financial Sponsors
SCOR, NSF
Meetings
  1. 12-14 Sept. 2016 in Southampton, UK

  2. 15 Feb. 2018 in Portland, Oregon, USA

Publications
  • Optical Sensors Can Shed Light on Particle Dynamics in the Ocean

  • Research Topic in Frontiers in Marine Science on “We Shed Light: Optical Insights into the Biological Carbon Pump

  • Lombard, F., E. Boss, A.M. Waite, M. Vogt, J. Uitz, L. Stemmann, H.M. Sosik, J. Schulz, J.-B. Romagnan, M. Picheral, J. Pearlman, M.D. Ohman, B. Niehoff, K.O. Möller, P. Miloslavich, A. Lara-Lopez, R. Kudela, R.M. Lopes, R. Kiko, L. Karp-Boss, J.S. Jaffe, M.H. Iversen, J.-O. Irisson, K. Fennel, H. Hauss, L. Guidi, G. Gorsky, S.L.C. Giering, P. Gaube, S. Gallager, G. Dubelaar, R.K. Cowen, F. Carlotti, C. Briseño-Aven, L. Berline, K. Benoit-Bird,, N. Bax, S. Batten, S.D. Ayata, L.F. Artigas, and W. Appeltans. 2019 Globally consistent quantitative observations of planktonic ecosystems. Front. Mar. Sci. 6:196. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00196

  • Giering, S. L. C., Cavan, E. L., Basedow, S. L., Briggs, N., Burd, A. B., Darroch, L. J., Guidi, L., Irisson, J.-O., Iversen, M. H., Kiko, R., Lindsay, D., Marcolin, C. R., McDonnell, A. M. P., Möller, K. O., Passow, U., Thomalla, S., Trull, T. W., & Waite, A. M. (2020b). Sinking Organic Particles in the Ocean—Flux Estimates From in situ Optical Devices. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00834

  • Giering, S. L. C., Hosking, B., Briggs, N., and Iversen, M. H. (2020). The Interpretation of Particle Size, Shape, and Carbon Flux of Marine Particle Images Is Strongly Affected by the Choice of Particle Detection Algorithm. Frontiers in Marine Science 7. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.00564/full

  • Iversen, M. H. (2023). Carbon Export in the Ocean: A Biologist’s Perspective. Annual Review of Marine Science 15 (1): 357–81. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-032122-035153.