A Model For The Use Of Satellite Remote Sensing For The Measurement Of Primary Production In The Ocean

The estimation of oceanic primary production on a global scale is the focus of efforts in remote sensing using the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS). The goal of this research is to provide a measure of the primary production using only satellite data for the estimate. This estimate requires the measurement of surface pigments (chlorophyll a + phaeophytin a) using the CZCS, an estimate of the sea-surface temperature using the AVHRR and determination of the incident solar irradiance using GOES imagery. In this paper, we describe a model of primary production based upon the responses of phytoplankton to differing light and nutrient fields. This model includes the effects on production of variations in surface pigment concentration, the mixed layer depth and the dependence on the incident solar irradiance. The model has been tested using in situ data provided by the Southern California Bight Studies (Eppley, et al., 1979), California Cooperative Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI), Organization of Persistent Upwelling Structures (J.B. Soolloo in OPUS Data Report) and other data sets. A synoptic measure of the distribution of surface pigments is derived from the West Coast Chlorophyll and Temperature Time Series (West Coast Time Series Advisory Group, 1985). The features and behavior of the model will be presented together with the results of the model verification.

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