SeaWiFS Highlights

December 2002

SeaWiFS Views Complex Eddies off Southeastern Australia

Gene Feldman (gene.c.feldman@nasa.gov)

NASA GSFC/Earth Sciences Directorate/Laboratory Hydrospheric Processes/SeaWiFS/SIMBIOS Project Office

This SeaWiFS image of the waters around southeastern Australia shows a complex eddy field highlighted by the chlorophyll-bearing phytoplankton that are carried along by the swirling currents.

On the land, one can see the long, ruler-straight boundaries of Australian national parks, such as the Murray-Sunset National Park and the Wyperfeld National Park in northwestern Victoria. The vegetation inside the parks makes these areas appear darker than the surrounding regions.

SeaWiFS Views Complex Eddies off Southeastern Australia

Sydney

Italy

• Launched January 12, 2003, 16:45 PST on Delta II rocket from Vandenberg, CA into a nominal orbit

• Now undergoing check-out procedures

• Science Objectives:• Polar ice sheet mass balance• Atmosphere-cloud heights and aerosol

distribution• Land Topography

• Instrument: Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) which was designed and built at GSFC

• 3 year lifetime (5-year design goal)

• Step 1 to achieve science requirement for 15-year time series on ice sheet changes (IPCC 2001)

ICESat - Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite

H. Jay Zwally and Christopher Shuman (christopher.a.shuman@nasa.gov)NASA GSFC/Earth Sciences Directorate/Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes/Oceans and Ice Branch

Global Land Surface Water Use Efficiency

• Water use efficiency is defined as the ratio of annual carbon accumulation by plant communities and total evaporation or transpiration. This efficiency is considered to be a highly significant indicator of ecosystem performance. A biophysical process-based model, combining energy and water balance equations, with carbon assimilation determining stomatal control on transpiration, has been used, together with 60 consecutive months of geo-coded and synchronous observations, to calculate components to total evaporation (transpiration, soil evaporation, and interception).

Bhaskar J. Choudhury – (bhaskar.j.choudhury@nasa.gov)NASA GSFC/Earth Sciences Directorate/Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes/

Hydrological Sciences Branch

This figure shows the ratio of annual total carbon accumulation per unit area and annual total evaporation (i.e., sum of transpiration, soil evaporation, and evaporation of intercepted water) in units of depth of water evaporated per unit area.

Bhaskar J. Choudhury – (bhaskar.j.choudhury@nasa.gov)NASA GSFC/Earth Sciences Directorate/Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes/

Hydrological Sciences Branch

Global Land Surface Water Use Efficiency