by Thanks to next-generation satellite systems in place by scientists, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-R series, scientists are able to obtain high-resolution images of Earth faster than ever before. This is data that helps paint a complete picture of our planet; the satellites can be thought of in conjunction with each other, using special instruments to make measurements and take observations that would otherwise be almost impossible to do directly from the ground. But, as our climate continues to change at a rapid rate due to human activities such as burning coal, and as scientists make more discoveries about how the Earth itself works, technology must to update. We cannot truly understand what is happening across our planet, including in terms of weather systems that affect the land and dynamics that occur deep below the surface of the ocean.
Earlier this month, the NOAA shared in the release that scientists have determined, for the second time in the past ten years, that a global coral bleaching event is taking place across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. Sea surface temperature data, collected from a mix of NOAA and partner satellites, helped confirm the ongoing event. But while NOAA scientists continue to analyze and document the intensity and extent of this global event, which is being driven by ocean warming and extreme sea heat stress, there is still more to understand when it comes to anatomy and the ecology of our oceans.
“For coral reef systems, including the global stressors of climate change and ocean warming, local stressors from pollution can inhibit coral growth and reproduction, disrupting the overall ecological function of coral animals and ecosystems reefs, and even cause disease and mortality in sensitive species. . And the pollution can come from all over the place—wildfire runoff, agricultural runoff, harmful algal blooms, heavy rains and landslides,” Ryan Vandermeulen, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Satellite Coordinator, told Space .com.
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“Satellite remote sensing of ocean color,” Vandermeulen continued, “gives us this synoptic view of living and microscopic non-living things in the aquatic environment. This gives us really critical insight into ecosystem variability, health function and vulnerability . to the smaller level and see how local stressors are affecting our communities as well.” This shows how scientists need to stay on top of monitoring changing environmental conditions, as technology changes. After the GOES-U launch in June of this year shuts down the GOES-R constellation, the operational lifetime of the array will only extend into the 2030s.
Therefore, NOAA is already developing new instruments that will be part of it Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system.successor to GOES-R.
“We know that GOES-R is primarily focused on what we think of as a weather mission. So we plan to add a new instrument called the Ocean Color (OCX) instrument, and will be scanning the coastal areas across the US as well as some of the larger lakes such as the Great Lakes. It’s going to be able to detect things like if there’s runoff or pollution, or an oil spill … it’s going to be able to tell how clear the water is,” said Pam Sullivan, GOES-R program director and NOAA’s GeoXO by Space.com .
“There will actually be an air quality instrument that will actually measure what the pollutants are across the US on an hourly basis,” Sullivan continued. “GeoXO also plans to add an atmospheric sounder, an instrument that looks at temperature and humidity in detail and can look at clear air and see where the turbulence is starting and can predict what trends are going to happen before this. “It’s even started.”
With a wide range of scientific advances that will be part of the design and focus on these important areas of study, scientists will have a new ability to go even deeper with their research and obtain more data to improve the technology already in place. complete GOES-R satellite imagery and lightning mapping capabilities will be enhanced to improve weather forecasts; new instruments will make measurements in both the ocean and the atmosphere, producing data we didn’t have before.
“We’re really improving the spatial resolution, so we’re going to see even finer details with our images,” Sullivan said. “It is very important that we are ready to launch this capability in the early 2030s. We are actually matching, in some ways, the instruments that other countries are already making. China and Europe are planning sounds like Japan, Korea is already a sea color tool.
“I think it’s important that the U.S. remains at the forefront of these observations and this understanding of our environment.”
