Schofield, Oscar: Rutgers University (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2006 - 2009
NRA: 2005 NASA: Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
NASA's Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry program focuses on describing,
understanding, and predicting the biological and biogeochemical regimes of the upper
ocean as determined by the observation of aquatic optical properties from space, aircraft,
and other suborbital platforms to support the understanding of the carbon cycle. To this
end, we are proposing to develop and implement a water mass classification scheme on a
global scale on the historic CZCS, SeaWifs, MODIS and AVHRR data. This
classification scheme is based on gene classification algorithms developed in the field of
bioinformatics. We have taken these algorithms, and modified them to look for surface water masses/provinces in the world ocean, the same way one would look for genes in a
genome. Pilot projects in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (HyCODE NASA grant N00014-97-
0767, and LaTTE NSF grant OCE 0238957 3/5) have shown these algorithms to be
robust allowing researchers to track the development and transport of water masses.
Because the analysis combines the information of multiple predictors to describe water
masses it is an effective tool in detecting water masses not readily recognizable with
temperature or chlorophyll alone. The application of this algorithm to the historic CZCS,
SeaWiFS, MODIS and AVHRR database will elucidate a time-resolved picture of global
water masses for the past decade, thus providing a dynamic context to evaluate the
impact of recent climate change on the biogeochemical regimes of the upper ocean.
2008 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Posters
- Objective global ocean biogeographic provinces
-- (Matthew Oliver, Andrew Irwin, Oscar Schofield, Paul Falkowski)
[abstract]
- Satellite detection of seasonal and secular change of global ocean biome distributions
-- (Andrew J Irwin, Matt J Oliver, Paul G Falkowski, Oscar ME Schofield)
[abstract]
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
