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The Sentinel-2A satellite has been in orbit for only a matter of weeks, but new images of an algal bloom in the Baltic Sea show that it is already exceeding expectations. Built essentially as a land monitoring mission, Sentinel-2 will also certainly find its way into marine applications.

Not easily digestible piece of esa document, but to prove Paul's point. And yes, they have already planned to train neural networks on a database of different water types, so that the satellite figures out from the combined retrieval of backscattering and absorption = f(λ) which type of water it is looking at. Type of water relates to οptical clarity of the water, a variable called turbidity. We could do this as well for mapping iron fertilization locations if we find its spectral signature. Lab time?????

Really interesting bit hidden in the last paragraph: Monitoring coral bleaching from space with Envisat penetrating down to a depth of 10 m "[...] Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer sensor can detect coral bleaching down to depths of ten metres, meaning Envisat could potentially map coral bleaching on a global scale."

No, it can't :-) Since 8 April 2012 Envisat is a proud holder of the title of one of the biggest pieces of space junk out there in LEO...

admittedly correct, so the past tense would have been a more appropriate choice... Nevertheless, plenty of data to look back at and Sentinel-3 will launch eventually! ;)

New technology demonstration of laser communication link to offer high-speed near real time delivery of data from space... Oh, that's us... :)