Other News-in-the-Making from SeaWiFS
SeaWiFS data are being used by researchers on a wide variety of subjects. Here's a sampling of work currently underway.
* Turtles' migratory pathways across the Pacific. SeaWiFS images have proven
useful in identifying forage and migratory pathways across the North Pacific
used by loggerhead turtles and albacore tuna. The pathway appears in SeaWiFS
images as a sharp chlorophyll front representing the boundary between the low
chlorophyll water in the central Pacific and the high chlorophyll water further
north.
Contact: Jeffrey Polovina, NMFS/NOAA. tel. 808-983-5390, e-mail:
Jeffrey.Polovina@noaa.gov
* Coastal water quality and harmful algal blooms. NOAA's CoastWatch program
provides near real-time SeaWiFS data to civilian government users (federal,
state, and local). Applications include operational predictions and monitoring
of harmful algal blooms and areas of coastal bottom anoxia; fisheries
management, including reducing by-catch of protected and endangered species; and
point source monitoring (ocean outfalls).
Contact: Pat Viets, NOAA Public
Affairs, tel. 301-457-5005, e-mail: Patricia.Viets@noaa.gov
* Long-range movement of air pollution. SeaWiFS has tracked a dust storm from
China that caused high aerosol concentrations over the U.S. Pacific coast and a
smoke plume from Central American fires that caused health alerts as it moved
into the United States. Researchers now routinely using SeaWiFS data to
detect and study major dust and smoke events.
Contact: Rudolf B. Husar, Washington University, tel. 314-935-6099, e-mail: rhusar@me.wustl.edu
* Mysterious "bright waters" in the Bering Sea. During recent winters NASA
scientists have noticed bright patches of water in SeaWiFS images of the remote
Bering Sea. These were surprising because it should be too cold for
phytoplankton to grow there in winter. We are now analyzing water samples
collected from this area to find the cause of the mysterious bright waters.
Contacts: Sandra Broerse, University of Southampton, tel. +44-2380-596574, e- mail atb1@mail.soc.soton.ac.uk; Toby Tyrrell, University of Southampton, tel. +44-2380-596110, e-mail: T.Tyrrell@soc.soton.ac.uk
* Improving climate prediction tools. Understanding the current productivity of
the ocean is helpful in evaluating the effect of global warming on marine
biology in the future. The SeaWiFS record of observed chlorophyll is being used
to create improved representations of the contribution of ocean biology in the
overall climate system.
Contact: Jorge Sarmiento, Princeton University, tel.
609-258-6585; e-mail: jls@splash.princeton.edu
* Unusual long-lasting ocean eddies off Hawaii. For fish and fisherman, eddies
mean an increase in organisms that make up the marine food web. Scientists using
SeaWiFS data discovered an unusual long-lasting, whirlpool-like ocean eddy that
generated a dramatic increase in the marine food supply off the Hawaiian coast.
Contact: Robert Bidigare, University of Hawaii Department of Oceanography,
tel. 808-956-6567, e-mail: bidigare@soest.hawaii.edu
* Coral reef mapping around the world. NASA and NOAA are working together to
identify areas of potential coral reef habitat around the world. This effort is
providing a reference map for coral reefs for a database of other imagery. The
project is improving the location of coral reefs in global databases to within
half a mile.
Contact: Richard P. Stumpf, NOAA National Ocean Service, tel.
301-713-3028 ext. 173, e-mail: richard.stumpf@noaa.gov
* Fertilizing the ocean with iron. Experimental fertilization of the Southern
Ocean produced a spectacular algal bloom that persisted for over a month.
SeaWiFS images of the event challenge our understanding of the cycling of iron
within algal blooms.
Contact: Edward Abraham, New Zealand National Institute
of Water and Atmospheric Research, tel. +64 4 386 0329, e-mail:
abraham@niwa.cri.nz
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