POSTER SESSION 4
10:30–12:30, Thursday, September 17
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
ABSTRACT 1201 | POSTER 84
SPECTRAL LIBRARIES OF COCCOLITHOPHORE STRAINS TO IMPROVE SATELLITE ESTIMATES OF PARTICULATE INORGANIC CARBON
Coccolithophores are eukaryotic phytoplankton that produce particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) plates known as coccoliths, which ballast organic matter and facilitate carbon export. Satellites can observe coccolithophore blooms due to coccolith light scattering, which allows PIC concentrations to be estimated from space. However, current algorithms rely on comparisons between a few bands available from multispectral satellite observations, which mostly capture PIC produced by Emiliania huxleyi, missing significant PIC contributions from other coccolithophores. Furthermore, coccolith morphology and PIC content vary among E. huxleyi strains, which may not be adequately captured by existing PIC algorithms. Future algorithms can utilize high resolution hyperspectral remote sensing reflectance data from Plankton, Aerosols, Clouds, ocean Ecosystems (PACE) to overcome these challenges. To fully leverage PACE data, we created hyperspectral UV-Vis optical libraries of absorption, backscattering, and reflectance of 13 coccolithophore strains, seven E. huxleyi strains representing different morphotypes and six strains from other common coccolithophore species in the surface ocean (Gephyrocapsa oceanica, Coccolithus braarudii, Calcidiscus leptoporus, and Helicosphaera carteri). We also measured PIC, volume scattering functions, particle size distributions, and pigment content of all coccolithophore strains. Our initial analysis reveals that particle backscattering is elevated from ~500-650nm in coccolith-bearing cells compared to noncalcified cells. This spectral region will be a focus for future work to improve retrievals of PIC concentrations from hyperspectral PACE data, which will increase our understanding of PIC production in the surface ocean and how PIC production will be influenced by a changing ocean.
Austin Grubb, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5970-1069
Wonkook Kim, Pusan National University, South Korea, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3237-9794
Vanessa Strohm, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected]
Harrison Smith, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected]
Ethan Taylor, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected]
Antonio Mannino, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0938-7219
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
