The Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) project supports the validation of satellite ocean color imagery data collected by the Sea-Viewing Wide-Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).

MOBY is a 14-meter long buoy system developed and instrumented to measure upwelling radiance and downwelling irradiance at the sea surface and at three deeper depths.   Submarine light is transmitted by fiber optics to the MOBY spectrograph for continuous energy measurements at subnanometer resolution from 340 (ultraviolet) to 950 (near-infrared) nanometers.  Standard meteorological observations are collected concurrent with the submarine light measurements, and supplemental oceanographic measurements, such as natural phytoplankton fluorescence, are also collected.  MOBY transmits the collected data to Marine Optical Characterization Experiment (MOCE) Team members on a daily basis.  These data are then processed and made available to SeaWiFS and MODIS Ocean Science Team members.