Satellites and Remote Sensing

It is difficult to observe the vast ocean that controls much of our climate and other Earth-system processes. However, satellite instruments can quickly make a variety of measurements over a wide swath of ocean. 

Because of its excellence in satellite-based research, modeling and observations, COAS was selected to develop and maintain a center of excellence in satellite remote-sensing research and modeling of the ocean, the Cooperative Institute for Oceanographic Satellite Studies (CIOSS).

Snapshots of COAS research:

• Wind traits over the oceans
  
  
• A climatology atlas of ocean winds
  
  
• Modeling coastal currents
  
  
• Mapping currents with radio waves
  
  
• Tracking harmful algal blooms
  
  
• The next generation of satellites
  
  
• How tropical weather dynamics affect the globe
  
  
• Satellite data could provide immediate warnings
  
  

Satellite instruments return a variety of information:

• Infared sensors measure surface temperatures which show upwelling areas where cooler, nutrient-rich water is pulled up.
  
• Visual sensors measure ocean color at several wavelengths and allow estimating phytoplankton growth.
  
• Microwave instruments (scatterometers, altimeters and radiometers) see through clouds, allowing all-weather measurements of the ocean surface.
  
• Scatterometers measure winds and show the mixing power and driving force for currents in the top 40 meters, as well as the strength of the transfer of heat and carbon dioxide through the ocean’s surface.
  
• Altimeters measure sea-surface height, which shows geostrophic currents beneath a wind layer and significant wave heights.
  
• Microwave radiometers measure surface temperatures on a coarser grid than the infrared sensors, but look through clouds (which the infrared sensors cannot do).
  
• Many of the above instruments are also used to look at cloud properties and to estimate the amount of radiation that reaches the surface of the ocean.
  

• NASA animation of satellite data about our Earth system. (QuikTime movie)
• Community letter to NASA and NOAA about ocean color sensing needs.

Eddies on the order of five kilometers in diameter, made visible by phytoplankton in the Gulf of California.

Canary Island wakes, shown by SeaWiFS satellite, April 24, 1999.




Louisiana coast and the dynamic coastal region showing the suspended sediments, organic matter and phytoplankton.