Chuck, Paty: I was sitting in the breakout session, and felt that coastal ocean was not emphasized enough. In terms of "new" science enabled by this "new" sensor, perhaps we can think in a way that what science questions cannot be answered by our existing sensors. What cannot be answered now? I think most of them are coastal ocean related due to the limitations of existing sensors. For example we don't have reliable CDRs for many coastal oceans simply due to insufficient bands, insufficient resolution, inaccurate algorithms, etc. Therefore, we can't answer questions such as long-term coastal eutrophication or water-quality changes, carbon transformation and processes, HAB trend, species change, etc. Adding fluorescence measurement is absolutely necessary, not only because of its use in primary production and nutrient limitation, but also because of its unique value in identifying blooms in complex coastal waters. Similarly, higher-resolution than 1-km provides more value to coastal ocean only and not to open ocean. So, I think we should weigh coastal ocean more than what it stands now. Chuanmin Hu University of South Florida – submitted by Chuanmin Hu at 2008-04-30 22:57:30
