SeaWiFS Temporary Real-Time Agreement: Linda Payzant

SeaWiFS Temporary Real-Time Authorization Agreement Application Form


Applicant's Name: 	Linda Payzant	
Institution:	  	Bedford Institute of Oceanography	
Address:		P.O. Box 1006
			1 Challenger Drive
			Dartmouth, N.S.  B2Y 4A2 
			CANADA	
Telephone:		902-426-2188	
Fax Number:		902-426-9388	
E-mail Address: 	payzantl@dfo-mpo.gc.ca	 	
	

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:

Dates (month/day/year):  10/01/2003 - 10/28/2003

SeaWiFS HRPT Station to provide data: HBIO 

List of Authorized Users to access real-time data. 

1. Linda Payzant
2. Trevor Platt 

Project Title: SOLAS 

Principal Investigator(s): Trevor Platt, Shubha Sathyendranath 

Funding Agency(s): Government of Canada: Dept. Fisheries & Oceans, Canadian Space Agency 

Description of the Research Project and Justification for Real-time SeaWiFS Data:

Background:

Bounded by three oceans, Canada has a vital interest in the impact of changing ocean processes on weather patterns, resources, and transportation. The Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) research network (university, government and private sector partners) is part of a new international initiative aimed at understanding the interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere, and the implications of those interactions for global climatic change. The major goals of this research program are:

To determine the distribution of trace gases across the northwestern Atlantic and sub-Arctic Pacific, and how they affect the atmosphere's chemical and physical properties.
To increase our capacity to estimate trace gas emissions from whole oceanic basins using remote-sensing technology.
To increase our capacity to model ocean-atmosphere exchange over reginal and seasonal scales, thereby improving methods for predicting climate change.

SOLAS integrates a wide range of atmospheric and marine-research specialists. The network will involve 43 researchers from nine universities, 22 government researchers from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Meteorological Service of Canada, two industrial collaborators and a growing number of international partners. Together, they will examine the key interactions of the marine biochemical system and the atmosphere, and the impact of these interactions on climate change. The SOLAS network will provide training opportunities for 30 graduate students.

Northwest Atlantic Field Campaign:

In 2003, three major SOLAS expeditions (25-30 days duration each) in the northwest Atlantic are planned, one in spring (mid-April to mid-May), one in summer (Mid-July to Mid-August) and one in fall (October). Operationally the program includes lagrangian measurements in proximity of a fixed mooring site (42.5N Lat, 58W Lon) in spring to follow the development/decline of the "spring bloom" and occupation during all seasons of a N-S transect (40-59N Lat along 44W Lon), encompassing the major biogeochemical provinces of the NW Atlantic.

Request:

The Canadian SOLAS research team concluded in its initial planning meeting that near real-time access to SeaWiFS ocean colour data for the region of interest and dates indicated above would be of critical importance for establishing the broader spatial context of the phytoplankton fields to (1) guide sampling during the lagrangian study in spring and (2) aid in demarcation of biogeochemical province boundaries during the seasonal large-scale surveys.

SeaWiFS Project Home Page

Grace Su ( license@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9494