Synergies Between NASA's Hyperspectral Aquatic Missions PACE, GLIMR, and SBG: Opportunities for New Science and Applications

Abstract

Within the next decade, NASA plans to launch three new missions with imaging spectrometers for aquatic science and applications: Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) in 2024, Geostationary Littoral Imaging Radiometer (GLIMR) in 2026, and Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) in 2028. Together these missions will evaluate long‐term trends in phytoplankton biomass linked to climate change, and provide new spectral capabilities to assess aquatic biogeochemistry, biophysics, and habitats. Hyperspectral measurements of ocean color, paired with advanced retrieval algorithms, can provide new information on phytoplankton community composition and water quality. We compare the mission architecture and sensor characteristics to identify the synergistic opportunities to merge algorithms, field data, and calibration and validation techniques. Each mission has unique temporal and spatial characteristics to monitor the aquatic transitions from watershed to open ocean ecosystems. SBG provides observations at high spatial scales to monitor emergent, floating, submerged and benthic habitats from inland to coastal waters. With global daily coverage, PACE can track the fate of material as it meanders offshore and provides an enhanced context for phytoplankton diversity and global biogeochemical cycling. GLIMR is optimized to resolve temporal processes that give rise to aquatic rates and fluxes including phytoplankton growth rates, physiology and episodic events such as storms. Applications with high spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution from these NASA missions include assessing carbon dynamics and biogeochemical cycling across the land‐ocean continuum, harmful algal blooms and oil spills.

Expanded Signal to Noise Ratio Estimates for Validating Next-Generation Satellite Sensors in Oceanic, Coastal, and Inland Waters

“…This analysis focused exclusively on sensors amenable to the geostatistical determination of the SNR, which precludes the inclusion of fixed-location sensors [19] and in-water sensors on a variety of platforms [11,35,55]. While not discussed, it is implicit in proposed PACE validation activities that airborne sensors would be complemented with fixed-position, shipboard, and autonomous platforms [80]; the same validation methodology would also serve for other imminent hyperspectral missions [81]. This multi-modality approach has many advantages, including capturing a wider range of remote sensing targets than are available from calibration sites, the potential for improved R rs uncertainty [30] and cross-validation of airborne and in-water sensors [32], particularly for sensor web configurations.…”

Testing a Hyperspectral, Bio‐Optical Approach to Identification of Phytoplankton Community Composition in the Chesapeake Bay Estuary

“…As the synoptic-scale of multispectral-based ocean color observations from space have revolutionized our understanding of global ocean phytoplankton distribution and related upper ocean processes over the past few decades, a new generation of current and future hyperspectral satellite sensors show potential for another leap forward in remote sensing capabilities by enabling global-scale measurements of phytoplankton diversity (Dierssen et al, 2023;Werdell et al, 2019). Phytoplankton are single-celled, photosynthesizing microalgae ubiquitous in the sunlit upper layer of aquatic environments worldwide, hence directly influence both ocean food webs and global climate.…”

Bringing satellite and nanotechnologies together: unifying strengths against pollution and climate change

“…Frontiers in Nanotechnology frontiersin.org models require larger datasets and narrower sensor bands with adequate signal-to-noise ratios. Despite entering a new hyperspectral satellite era, the availability of field information to construct and validate globally applicable models for most applications remains limited (Dierssen et al, 2023).…”