Enhanced permafrost warming and increased arctic river discharges have heightened concern about the input of terrigenous matter into Arctic coastal waters. The IPY project 'ocOC- from Ocean Colour to Organic Carbon' (2008-2010) uses Ocean Colour (OC) data for synoptic monitoring of the input of terrigenous Organic Carbon (OC) from fluvial and coastal sources into Arctic coastal waters. Every late summer, Russian-German ship expeditions take part in the southern Laptev Sea (Arctic Siberia, Russia). The multi-year expedition data are the base for understanding the optico-chemico properties of the coastal waters. The coastal waters are characterized by low transparencies, resuspension events and high cDOM concentrations. The Laptev Sea Region has become an ESA CoastColour investigation site to support the use of the ground data. Ocean Colour MERIS data from 2008 on to 2010 are processed using the VISAT Beam Case2Regional Processor (C2R). The expedition data show that Siberian Arctic coastal waters are highly specific in terms of high cDOM background concentrations. Therefore, all remote sensing chlorophyll products are overestimated by an order of magnitude due to the high cDOM concentrations. The optical C2R parameters such as absorption, attenuation and the first attenuation depth are of immediate value to show the hydrographic dynamics of the Laptev Sea coastal waters