Overview

NASA’s Ocean Color satellites provide time-series of chlorophyll a (Chl-a) data of the global ocean using which net primary productivity (NPP) can be computed. NPP is important because it is the process that forms the foundation of food webs. The satellite-derived Chl-a, however, have higher levels of uncertainty in the coastal waters due to confounding effects of multiple components present in optically complex coastal waters. Hence, the estimations of NPP and how they affect the carbon cycle at the land- sea interface are erroneous or not available. Further, water quality in the region east of the Mississippi River Delta have been poorly measured relative to the adjacent system west of the Mississippi River Delta. In fact, several studies have highlighted the frequency and spatial extent of hypoxia east of the Mississippi River Delta as an open question. The objective of the proposed work is to improve and develop remote sensing algorithms for Chl-a for the operational monitoring of coastal waters of the Mississippi Sound and implement the algorithms to advance the visualization tool, which can be used to assess the climate change impacts on NPP of coastal waters.

Funding

This work is supported with funding from NASA EPSCoR project number G00007006.

Period of Performance

July 2022 - June 2025