Quantifying marine processes

Global and frequent coverage makes remote sensing information the ideal tool to improve our understanding of the structure, functioning and dynamics of the global ocean. Methods have been developed to infer properties of the ocean ecosystem from satellite data including chlorophyll concentration, phytoplankton carbon, primary production and phytoplankton functional type. From this data seasonal, interannual and long-term variability in physical and ecological ocean properties can be determined which provides valuable information for studies of climate change.

 

An important goal, which has been achieved by PML scientists in ocean colour remote sensing, is to detect accurately different phytoplankton groups. This has several potential uses including the validation of multi-phytoplankton carbon cycle models; monitoring the health of our oceans, and improving our understanding of the biogeochemical interactions between phytoplankton and their environment. Results indicate that on average nearly 80% of the global oceanic surface layer is dominated by picoplankton, although this varies depending on season and ocean basin.


Projects

  • European Space Agency Coast Colour
    The Coast Colour project aims to fully exploit the potential of the MERIS instrument for remote sensing of the coastal zone.  Coast Colour is developing, demonstrating, validating and intercomparing algorithms over a global range of coastal water types, identifying best practices and promoting discussion of the results. 
  • European Space Agency Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative
    The ESA Climate Change Initiative aims to use Earth observation to help generate Essential Climate Variables (such as ozone content, snow cover, fire disturbance and ocean salinity) for our planet in a bid to unlock the complexities of climate change.
  • National Centre for Earth Observation – Carbon theme
    The National Centre for Earth Observation is a partnership of scientists and institutions, from a range of disciplines, who are using data from Earth observation satellites to monitor global and regional changes in the environment and to improve understanding of the Earth system so that we can predict future environmental conditions. PML is the leader of the Ocean Carbon theme which conducts research into methods to retrieve information on the ocean carbon system from Earth observation. 
  • NERC Earth Observation Data Acquisition and Analysis Service (NEODAAS)
    The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Earth Observation Data Acquisition and Analysis Service (NEODAAS) supports UK research scientists with remote sensing data and information. The service is hosted at two sites with the PML Remote Sensing Group providing data processing for the service.