Department of Earth System Science

Observations of ocean color from space have been part of the U.S. JGOFS strategy for discerning temporal and spatial variations in upper-ocean productivity on the global scale since the first planning workshops for a U.S. global ocean flux program (National Academy of Sciences, 1984). From the start, remote measurements of near-surface chlorophyll a concentrations were envisaged as the major tool for extrapolating upper-ocean chemical and biological measurements in time and space and linking calculations of new and primary production with the flux of particulate material through the water column.