Environmental News Network - NASA Wants to Identify Phytoplankton Species from Space. Here’s Why.

Details: By NASA; 23.Jun

They’re small, but they’re mighty. From producing oxygen we breathe to soaking up carbon we emit to feeding fish we eat, tiny phytoplankton are a crucial part of ocean ecosystems and essential to life as we know it on Earth.

Julie Swatson

They’re small, but they’re mighty. From producing oxygen we breathe to soaking up carbon we emit to feeding fish we eat, tiny phytoplankton are a crucial part of ocean ecosystems and essential to life as we know it on Earth. To give us a new view of these extraordinary aquatic organisms, NASA is launching a satellite in early 2024.

Instruments on the PACE (short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem) satellite will peer down at the ocean and collect data on the colors of light reflecting off it, telling us where different types of phytoplankton are thriving.

The Ocean Color Instrument on PACE will be able to observe more than 100 different wavelengths, and is the first scientific satellite to do so daily on a global scale. This "hyperspectral" instrument will make it possible to identify phytoplankton by species for the first time from space.

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NASA Wants to Identify Phytoplankton Species from Space. Here’s Why.