NASA is looking for clues to humanity’s future
How to Distinguish Between Species of Pseudocaneland and Ocean Color with the PACE Hyperspectral Ocean Color Instrument
The startup quickly faced backlash — including the government of Mexico banning its experiments — because of the potential planetary consequences of attempting to deliberately manipulate Earth’s atmosphere. Environmentalists and researchers oppose so-called “geoengineering” which involves tinkering with the atmosphere and oceans in this way.
There are also a couple sci-fi-sounding scenarios that this kind of research could feasibly support one day. There’s been some early study into ways to potentially boost phytoplankton’s absorption of carbon dioxide by providing them with more nutrients. There have also been headlines lately about one startup’s rogue attempts at launching aerosols into the atmosphere to try to stop global warming.
The work cleaning up aerosol pollution has been a double-edged sword. Aerosol particles, and some of the clouds that can form around them, can reflect solar radiation back out into space. Global warming might be made worse by fewer aerosols in the atmosphere. Two instruments that are small and easy to use are called polarimeters, which can detect aerosols based on their reflection in the light. Knowing what types of aerosols are out there helps scientists make more accurate forecasts for the future.
Aerosols that can affect air quality will be studied by two instruments on board the spacecraft. “Aerosols are really important to human health, so that’s why we need to really quantify what is out there — like what type of aerosols there are and where they come from,” Meng Gao, PACE polarimetry data science and software lead, says in another NASA video posted in December.
The hyperspectral ocean color instrument that the PACE satellite is carrying will make observations across ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light spectrums. That’ll allow scientists to differentiate between species of phytoplankton by their unique color for the first time from space. They can use that data to figure out what kinds of organisms are out there and spot changes in the sea that could impact ecosystems and coastal communities that rely on them.
While a red tide is an extreme example, different kinds of phytoplankton can make the surface of the sea appear to be different colors — albeit in ways that are often too subtle for the human eye to detect.
Plankton play an important role in the health of the ocean’s food chains. Toxic red tides are one of the benefits of interacting with tens of thousands of different species of phytoplankton, some beneficial and some potentially harmful.
Way up in the sky and sprinkled across the seas, two of the littlest yet most influential things in the world have stubbornly guarded their secrets: aerosols and phytoplankton. The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem mission was launched today by NASA. Understanding how drastically the world is changed as it warms could be a result of the mission’s findings.
It’ll examine microscopic plants and particles — things so small they’re invisible to the naked eye — from hundreds of miles above Earth. The goal is to better understand how such teeny tiny things can actually impact the whole planet.
Is it possible to see plankton from space? NASA, of course. The new mission, calledPACE, is a study of the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem.
Fossil fuel pollution and small particles of dust and wildfire smoke are floating around the atmosphere, which reflect the sun’s energy and help build clouds. The foundation of the food web is formed by plantlike marine organisms, called phytoplankton. They also sequester carbon, keeping Earth’s climate from warming even further. “Phytoplankton are basically moving carbon around, and we need to understand how that changes with time,” says Jeremy Werdell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Think about what you see staring into a forest. “All the leaves on the various trees are green, but they’re very subtly different greens, which means they’re different plants,” says Werdell. “Really what we’re searching for are these very, very subtle changes in color.”
The Effects of Sea Surface Temperatures on Phytoplanktonic Growth and Evolution: How Warm Water is the Cap of the Ocean
Better understanding these phytoplanktonic communities is critical because of how rapidly the oceans are transforming. They’ve absorbed something like 90 percent of the excess heat humanity has added to the atmosphere, and over the past year or so in particular, sea surface temperatures have soared to record highs and stayed there. The high temperatures themselves might adversely affect the growth of some phytoplankton species, but might actually benefit others that thrive as the mercury climbs.
Warm water acts like a kind of cap at the ocean’s surface with cooler waters below. It is similar to drinking a half and half at your favorite Irish pub. Guinness floating on top of Harp,” says Werdell. “That creates a barrier in this huge stretch of real estate in the upper ocean, where nutrients in the cold water underneath this layer of warm water can’t penetrate.”
If the cap of warm water continues in a given area, that will further shake up the photosynthesizing species. Zooplankton need more of a variety of species for food, so their numbers may decline if that is not the case. And then the larger predators like fish that eat the zooplankton will be impacted, on up the food chain. That could affect the food species humans rely on for their nutrition.
NASA has launched itsPACE Hyperspectral Ocean Color Instrument to help scientists differentiate species of phytoplankton by their unique colour for the first time from space. It will allow scientists to differentiate between species of phytoplankton by their unique colour for the first time from space. “Phytoplankton…are moving carbon around, and we need to understand how that changes with time,” NASA said.