SeaWiFS The Meaning of Ocean Color The Role of Phytoplankton The Carbon Absorbing Oceans

What is ocean color? Why is ocean color important? How is ocean color measured? Photograph taken by astronauts that shows how plankton blooms change the color of the ocean as viewed from space. In just two minutes a satellite collected data for this map of phytoplankton around Tasmania, Australia. It would have taken a ship moving at 10 knots an entire decade to collect the same type of data on this area which is slightly larger than Texas and New Mexico combined. This movie shows the distribution of plant life on Earth from satellite measurements in space. As the movie plays and Earth rotates, observe the pattern visible at the different latitudes. How is ocean color measured? Our knowledge of our oceans is limited. Ships, coastlines, and islands provide places from which we can observe, sample, and study small portions of the ocean. But we can only look at a very small part of all the world's oceans this way. We need a better way to study oceans. When we look at the ocean from space, we see many different shades of blue. Using instruments that are more sensitive than the human eye, we can measure carefully the fantastic array of colors. Satellites can directly measure ocean productivity and temperature based on ocean color. Microscopic plants (phytoplankton) absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect others. Mapping ocean color reveals fertile areas; those places where large quantities of phytoplankton are found and because fish feed on it, the chances are there will be many fish there too. Since a satellite's instruments can view every square kilometer of cloud-free ocean every 48 hours, ocean color measurements can be valuable tools for finding out how much life is in the ocean on a global scale and can be used to figure out the ocean's role in the carbon cycle and the way other important gases are exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean. SeaWiFS was sent up as the "sequel" to the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), which ceased operations in 1986. Movie: SeaStar Spacecraft illustration The SeaStar spacecraft carries the SeaWiFS instrument and was launched to low-Earth orbit on board an extended Pegasus launch vehicle on August 1, 1997. The SeaWiFS instrument is the only scientific payload on the SeaStar spacecraft. Data collected by the SeaWiFS instrument is broadcast back to ground stations all over the world by the SeaStar spacecraft.   Movie: SeaWiFS Lunar Calibration The SeaWiFS instrument collects data that allows scientists to examine how the ocean affects global change and to find out what role the oceans' play in the global carbon cycle.

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