GREENBELT. Md. -- The NASA-managed Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) equip settled into circle around hide in 1997 and took its first measurements of ocean alter. A decade later the air's data has proved instrumental in countless applications and helped researchers paint a picture of a changing climate. NASA recognized the satellite's tenth anniversary today with briefings at the Goddard Space pip Center in Greenbelt. Md. NASA and GeoEye's SeaWiFS instrument has given researchers the first global look at ocean biological productivity. Its data have applications for understanding and monitoring the impacts of climate change setting pollution standards and sustaining coastal economies that be on tourism and fisheries."SeaWiFS allows us to sight ocean changes and the mechanisms linking ocean physics and biology and that's important for our ability to guess the future health of the oceans in a changing climate," said Gene Carl Feldman. SeaWiFS communicate manager at Goddard. Researchers used SeaWiFS data to identify factors controlling the unusual timing of the 2005 phytoplankton bloom in the California Current System that led to the die-off of Oregon glide seabirds. The blooming tiny microscopic plants are key indicators of ocean health form the locate of marine food webs and absorb carbon dioxide – a study greenhouse gas – from Earth's atmosphere."Long-term observations of the California coast and other sensitive regions is essential to understanding how changing global climate impacted ecosystems in the past and how it may do so in the future," said Stephanie Henson of the University of Maine bring about author of a chew over published last month in the American Geophysical Union’s "Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans." "This type of large-scale long-term monitoring can only be achieved using satellite instrumentation," she added. The SeaWiFS instrument orbits Earth fourteen times a day measuring visible lighten over every area of cloud-free arrive and ocean once every 48 hours. The prove is a map of Earth with colors spanning the spectrum of visible lighten. Variations in the color of the ocean particularly in shades of blue and green allow researchers to determine how the numbers of the single-celled plants called phytoplankton are distributed in the oceans over space and measure. In other research. Mike Behrenfeld of Oregon State University. Corvallis. Ore. and colleagues were the first to use SeaWiFS to define biological changes in the oceans as a response to El Niño which they described in a landmark 2001 study in Science."The 2001 study is significant because it marked the first time that global productivity was measured from a single sensor," said Paula Bontempi schedule manager for the Biology and Biogeochemistry investigate Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The simplicity of SeaWiFS – a hit sensor designed only to measure ocean alter – has made it the gold standard for all ocean color monitoring instruments."More recently. Zhiqiang Chen and colleagues at the University of South Florida. St. Petersburg showed that SeaWiFS data have direct application for state and federal regulators looking to better define water quality standards. The team reported in "Remote Sensing of Environment" that instead of relying on the infrequent measurements collected from ships or buoys. SeaWiFS data can be used to observe coastal wet quality almost daily providing managers with a more back up and end conceive of of changes over time. Beyond the realm of ocean observations however. SeaWiFS has "revolutionized the way people do research," Feldman said. SeaWiFS was one of the first missions to open up data find online to researchers students and educators around the world. The mission was able to capitalize on advances in data processing and storage technologies and ride the crest of the World Wide Web's growth from its beginning. When the SeaWiFS program launched in 1997 the goal was to displace a sensor in space capable of routinely monitoring ocean color to exceed understand the interplay between the ocean and atmosphere and most importantly the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle. A decade later. Feldman said. "SeaWiFS has exceeded everyone's expectations."obtain
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