Estimation of Particulate Organic Carbon in the Ocean from Satellite Remote Sensing

Measurements from the Southern Ocean show that particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration is well correlated with the optical backscattering by particles suspended in seawater. This relation, in conjunction with retrieval of the backscattering coefficient from remote-sensing reflectance, provide...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Stramski, Dariusz, Reynolds, Rick A., Kahru, Mati, Mitchell, B. Greg
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1999
Subjects:
Antarctic
Southern Ocean
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.285.5425.239
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.285.5425.239
Description
Summary:Measurements from the Southern Ocean show that particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration is well correlated with the optical backscattering by particles suspended in seawater. This relation, in conjunction with retrieval of the backscattering coefficient from remote-sensing reflectance, provides an algorithm for estimating surface POC from satellite data of ocean color. Satellite imagery from SeaWiFS reveals the seasonal progression of POC, with a zonal band of elevated POC concentrations in December coinciding with the Antarctic Polar Front Zone. At that time, the POC pool within the top 100 meters of the entire Southern Ocean south of 40°S exceeded 0.8 gigatons.

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