Our poster provides and overview on our team's expertise in ocean optics in situ measurements and the development of algorithms to derive phytoplankton characteristics from satellite ocean colour. Since 2007 we participated in 13 Atlantic and Pacific cruises to acquire bio-optical in-situ measurements. These data are used to extract information on phytoplankton composition (Taylor et al. 2011, Zindler et al. 2012, Taylor et al. 2013), but also for validation and parameterization of radiative transfer models and satellite retrievals (Sadeghi et al. 2012). Particularly, we have specialized on evaluating specifically ocean colour algorithms in the polar oceans (Cherkasheva et al. 2013, Cherkasheva et al. revised at JMS, Soppa et al. 2013). For the Sentinel-3 validation campaign our objective is to validate ocean color level-2 products of OLCI with in-situ measurements. We want to validate chlorophyll conc., water leaving radiances or remote sensing reflectances, Kd490, absorption coefficients (phytoplankton, CDOM), POC conc. and PAR with data from the below stated in-situ measurements obtained during various campaigns. Most of our validation campaigns within early operation of Sentinel-3 OLCI will focus on the high latitudes (at 60°N->80°N and 45° to 70°S; funding secured for three RV POLARSTERN cruises in 2015-2016), but we will also sample at a coastal site at the Costa Brava, Alfacs Bay, Spain (with a local boat and from a raft) and in the Peruvian upwelling (with RV SONNE-II Jul-Aug 2015). In the presentation we will give an overview of our previous ocean colour validation work and give an overview on the planned validation campaigns for OLCI. We will also present the PANGAEA data base where so far all our published in situ data were uploaded.