Thanks to the next-generation satellite systems scientists have in place, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-R series, scientists can get high-definition images of Earth faster than ever before. These are data that help draw a complete picture of our planet; satellites can be thought of as collaborating with each other, using special tools to make measurements and observations that would otherwise be nearly impossible to make directly from the ground. However, as our climate continues to change at a rapid pace due to human activities such as burning coal, and as scientists make more discoveries about how planet Earth itself works, technology must update Only then will we be able to truly understand what is happening on our planet, including in terms of weather systems affecting the land and the dynamics occurring beneath the surface of the ocean.
At the beginning of this month, the NOAA shared in a statement that scientists determined, for the second time in the past decade, that a global coral bleaching event is occurring in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. Sea surface temperature data, collected from a combination of NOAA satellites and partners, helped confirm the ongoing event. But as NOAA scientists continue to analyze and document the severity and extent of this global event, which is being driven by warming oceans and extreme marine heat stress, there is still more to understand when it’s about the anatomy and ecology of our oceans.
“For coral reef systems, including global stress from climate change and ocean warming, local stressors from pollution can prevent coral growth and reproduction, disrupt ecological function coral animals and the reef ecosystem and even cause disease and mortality in sensitive species.And pollution can come from anywhere: runoff from wildfires, agricultural runoff, harmful algal blooms, heavy rainfall, and landslides,” Ryan Vandermeulen, satellite coordinator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, told Space.com.
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“Satellite remote sensing of ocean color,” Vandermeulen continued, “gives us this truly synoptic view of microscopic living and nonliving materials in the aquatic environment. This gives us a very critical view of the variability of ecosystem function and vulnerability. Let’s get down to the smallest level and see how local stressors also affect our communities.” This illustrates how scientists must keep up with monitoring changing environmental conditions, with evolving technology. After the GOES-U launch in June this year shuts down the GOES-R constellation, the series’ operational life will only extend into the 2030s.
Thus, NOAA is already developing new instruments that will be part of its own Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system.the successor to GOES-R.
“We know that GOES-R is primarily focused on what we think of as the weather mission. So we plan to add a new instrument called Ocean Color (OCX) instrument, and will scan the coastal areas of the United States as well as some of the major lakes such as the Great Lakes. It’s going to be able to detect things like if there’s runoff or pollution there, or an oil spill … it’s going to be able to indicate the clarity of the water,” Pam Sullivan, GOES-R program manager, told Space.com and GeoXO from NOAA.
“There will actually be an air quality instrument that will actually measure what the pollutants are in the US every hour,” Sullivan continued. “GeoXO also plans to add an atmospheric probe, an instrument that looks in great detail at temperature and humidity and can actually look at clear air and see where turbulence starts and can predict what trends are going to happen before they happen. and everything has started.”
With a wide range of scientific advances that will be part of the design and a focus on these important areas of study, scientists will have new capabilities to go even deeper with their research and obtain more data to complement the technology already in place. Improvements will be made to GOES-R satellite imagery and lightning mapping capabilities to improve weather forecasting; the new instruments will make measurements in both the ocean and the atmosphere, producing data we didn’t have in the past.
“We’re actually improving the spatial resolution, so we’ll still be able to see finer details with our image,” Sullivan said. “It’s very important that we’re ready to launch that capability in the early 2030s. We’re really matching, in some ways, the instruments that other countries are already making. China and Europe are already planning sounds like Japan, Korea already has it.an instrument of oceanic color.
“I think it’s important for the United States to stay on top of these observations and this understanding of our environment.”
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Image Source : www.space.com