Validating NASA’s PACE Ocean Color Instrument in the Great Lakes
Cyanobacteria bloom in Lake Winnebago
Funding: NASA PACE Validation Science Team
Over 50% of the world’s population lives within 3 km of a surface freshwater body, and nearly 2.4 billion people live within 10 km of the coastal ocean. In the U.S. alone, coastal zone counties account for 48% of the U.S. GDP and 42% of U.S. employment, representing the extensive use and importance of these ecosystems. Inland and coastal aquatic systems are increasingly under pressure from this extensive human activity and are particularly vulnerable to environmental change. Natural and human stressors include nutrient loading, coastal erosion, extreme storm events and water quality deterioration including hypoxia and harmful algal blooms (HABs), all of which are expected to intensify. The next generation Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) on board NASA’s PACE observatory provides a quantum leap in our ability to understand the ecosystem function and changing biogeochemical cycles of inland, coastal and global ocean aquatic systems. This project is collecting the requisite field data to validate observations made by the observatory, providing a foundation for cutting-edge science by our global research community.
