Grace Su ( grace@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9494
Applicant's Name: Dr. Toru Hirawake Institution: Center for Antarctic Environment Monitoring/National Institute of Polar Research Address: 9-10, Kaga 1, Itabashi, Tokyo 173-8515, Japan Telephone: +81-3-3962-4774 Fax Number: +81-3-3962-4914 E-mail Address: hirawake@nipr.ac.jp Type of Temporary Agreement requested: An agreement that temporarily enables a non-real time SeaWiFS HRPT station to decrypt real-time data and release it to the Authorized Users list. Time period of temporary agreement (3 months maximum). Start Date (month/day/year): 01/22/2003 End Date (month/day/year): 02/04/2003 SeaWiFS HRPT Station to provide data: HUMI (T/V Umitaka Maru) List of Authorized Users to access real-time data. 1. Dr. Toru Hirawake 2. Dr. Motoaki Kishino Project Title: Biological processes in relation to physical and chemical environments in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean Principal Investigator(s): Takashi Ishimaru Funding Agency(s) : Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Description of the Research Project and Justification for Real-time SeaWiFS Data: It had been considered that the Southern Ocean has a simple ecosystem constructed by diatoms as a primary producer and krill as a primary consumer. However, recent studies revealed that presence of ecosystems with small phytoplankton and other gelatinous zooplanktons, and these different ecosystems related to sea ice distribution and physical environment. A major objective of our project is to understand relationship between ecosystems in the Indian Ocean Sector of the Southern Ocean and involving oceanographic environments such as current, eddies, sea and chemical distribution including micronutrients. We will carry out plankton sampling, water sampling, bio-optical measurements, primary productivity measurements and chemical analysis of seawater, CTD and XCTD in the Southern Ocean by T/V Umitaka Maru during austral summer. The target area of this cruise is mainly near sea ice edge (62S to 66S) and their planed stations are along 110E and 140E. During the cruise, we will operate a TeraScan system on the vessel and will observe eddies, sea ice, icebergs, glaciers, SST and chlorophyll a distribution from SeaWiFS and AVHRR data. AVHRR data have possibility to illustrate physcial structure of sea surface. However, SeaWiFS true-color and chlorophyll images are more useful to distinguish these phenomena and important to understand the relationship on our objective. According to received SeaWiFS data on board, we will be able to re-set the focusing stations flexibly. Moreover we will also measure spectral radiation, absorption coefficients, volume scattering function, pigments concentration and primary productivity of water column. Using these in-situ data, we would like to validate the synchronized SeaWiFS data received on board and to develop bio-optical algorithms for the Antarctic Ocean.