The SeaWiFS Project
The purpose of the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project
is to provide quantitative data on global ocean bio-optical properties to
the Earth science community. Subtle changes in ocean color signify various
types and quantities of marine phytoplankton (microscopic marine plants),
the knowledge of which has both scientific and practical applications. The
SeaWiFS Project will develop and operate a research data system that will
process, calibrate, validate, archive and distribute data received from an
Earth-orbiting ocean color sensor.
The SeaWiFS Mission is a part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE),
which is designed to look at our planet from space to better understand it
as a system in both behavior and evolution. Since an orbiting sensor can
view every square kilometer of cloud-free ocean every 48 hours,
satellite-acquired ocean color data constitute a valuable tool for
determining the abundance of ocean biota on a global scale, and can assess
the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle and the exchange of other
critical elements and gases between the atmosphere and the ocean.
Collaborators
Worldwide collaborators based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, USA
LSCE (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat
et de l'Environnement) CEA Saclay, France
Rosenstiel School of
Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), University of Miami, USA
Contact
Gene Carl Feldman
Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, USA
gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html