PACE Celebrates National Ocean Month with Colorful Views of the Planet

What to give to the ocean, which has everything? This year, as part of National Ocean Month, NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite is giving us a unique look at our home planet. Visualizations created using data from the satellite, which was launched on February 8, are already helping us see our seas and skies better.

The PACE satellite scans our entire planet daily, returning data at intervals that allow scientists to track and monitor the rapidly changing atmosphere and ocean, including the formation of clouds, the movement of aerosols, and changes in microscopic ocean life over time.

The visualization begins by viewing areas of the Earth captured by the PACE Ocean Color Instrument. The Ocean Color Instrument observes the Earth in ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light—more than 200 different wavelengths. Thanks to this level of detail, scientists can now routinely identify from space specific communities of phytoplankton—tiny organisms that float near the ocean's surface and are the center of the marine food web. This is a major achievement because different species of phytoplankton play different roles in ocean ecosystems and ocean health.

Zooming in, the visualization shows the ecosystems and surrounding atmosphere off the east coast of the United States and the Bahamas on March 21. Like previous satellites, the Ocean Color Instrument can detect chlorophyll in the ocean, which indicates the presence and abundance of phytoplankton. The Ocean Color Instrument complements this functionality by allowing scientists to identify types of phytoplankton, such as the three different types of phytoplankton identified in the imaging.

Some of the green swirls indicate the presence of picoeukaryotes, organisms smaller than 0.3 micrometers—30 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Prochlorococci, the smallest known organisms that convert sunlight into energy (photosynthesis), are highlighted in light blue; they account for the majority of all photosynthesis occurring in the ocean. Part of the bright pink bloom is Synechococcus, a group of phytoplankton that can turn the water light pink if there are many of them in a small area.

These are just three of thousands of phytoplankton species, and this is just the beginning of what the Ocean Color Instrument can detect.

The PACE satellite's two polarimeters—Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter No. 2 (HARP2) and Spectro Polarimeter for Planetary Exploration (SPEXone)—provide a unique view of Earth's atmosphere, helping scientists learn more about clouds and small particles called aerosols. Polarimeters measure the light reflected from these particles. By learning more about the interactions between clouds and aerosols, the data will ultimately help make climate models more accurate. In addition, aerosols can degrade air quality, so monitoring their properties and movement is important for human health.

In the visualization, a large strip of HARP2 data shows the concentration of aerosols in the air for a given day. This data, a measure of the light-scattering and light-absorbing properties of aerosols, helps scientists not only detect aerosols, but also determine their type. Near the coast, the aerosols are most likely smoke from wildfires in the southeastern United States. A thin strip of SPEXone data complements the visualization and scientific picture by showing the size of aerosol particles.

Next year, PACE scientists aim to create the first global maps of phytoplankton communities and gain new insights into how fisheries and aquatic resources are responding to Earth's changing climate.

NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) spacecraft was specifically designed to explore the invisible universe of Earth's seas and skies from space. For decades, we have measured 4-6 colors of the rainbow, allowing us to “see” phytoplankton from space through the lens of its main photosynthetic pigment, chlorophyll-a. The PACE core instrument is the first of its kind to measure every color of the rainbow, every day, everywhere. This means that we can determine the type of phytoplankton that contains chlorophyll-a. Different types of phytoplankton have different impacts on the food web, water management and climate as they influence the carbon cycle.