MAINTAINING SUFFICIENT ACCURACY OVER THE LIFETIME OF SATELLITE-BASED OCEAN-VIEWING RADIOMETRY MISSIONS ( OCEAN COLOR RADIOMETRY ; OCR) REQUIRES A ROBUST VICARIOUS CALIBRATION PROGRAM TO ENABLE ROUTINE VERIFICATION OF THE OCEAN COLOR INSTRUMENT CALIBRATION WHILE ON ORBIT. IN ADDITION TO A SMALL NUMBER OF HIGHLY INSTRUMENTED SITES, A SPATIALLY EXTENSIVE NETWORK OF VICARIOUS CALIBRATION MATCH-UP DATA POINTS PERMITS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DESIRED LEVEL OF CALIBRATION UNCERTAINTY. HERE WE PROPOSE TO BUILD ON A STRONG HERITAGE TO ACHIEVE AN EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW HYPERSPECTRAL RADIOMETER SYSTEM CAPABLE OF MEETING NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR SPECTRAL RESOLUTION (<3 NM), FOR OBSERVATIONS IN THE UV AND NEAR IR (350-900 NM) AND WHICH WILL MAINTAIN THE DEMONSTRATED ACCURACY, PRECISION AND STABILITY OF EXISTING RADIOMETERS. WORKING WITH NIST, THE RADIOMETERS WILL BE FULLY CALIBRATED AND CHARACTERIZED FOLLOWING EXISTING PROTOCOLS. THE INSTRUMENTS WILL BE INTEGRATED ONTO AUTONOMOUS PROFILING FLOATS FOR UNTENDED OPTICAL PROFILING OVER PERIODS OF 3+ YEARS IN THE OPEN OCEAN. LASTLY, FIELD EVALUATIONS AND VALIDATIONS ARE PLANNED NEAR THE TWO FIXED CALIBRATION SITES NEAR HAWAII AND IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. THE BENEFIT WILL BE A NEW VICARIOUS CALIBRATION CAPABILITY FOR PACE AND OTHER OCEAN COLOR REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS. A THREE-YEAR PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE IS PLANNED, WITH ENTRY AT TRL 3 AND EXIT AT TRL 6/7.