AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting (Feb. 2002) COAST abstracts:

• Ashe et al.
  
• Bane et al.
  
• Barth et al.
  
• Coletti et al.
  
• Haines et al.
  
• Karp-Boss et al.
  
• Kosro et al.
  
• Kurapov et al.
  
• Okeefe et al.
  
• Ott et al.
  
• Perlin et al.
  
• Ruttenberg et al.
  
• Sutor et al.
  

OS22D-218

Airborne Hyperspectral Ocean Color Measurements off the Oregon Coast

Sara M. Haines, John M. Bane, Melanie F. Meaux

Department of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3300

Transport during wind-driven events was the primary focus of the
Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) project during the
Summer of 2001.  Hyperspectral remote-sensing and mapping of surface
ocean color properties provide a valuable tool for determining the
structure and transport of important biological components in the
coastal waters.

An instrumented light aircraft was used during COAST to remotely
measure ocean color and upper-ocean temperature, as well as conduct
simultaneous atmospheric measurements of horizontal winds, air
temperature, pressure, and humidity.  The aircraft provided rapid
coverage over the study area along eight 60-80 km cross-shore
transects in about 5 hours.

Two hyperspectral radiometers were mounted on the aircraft, one to
measure downwelling irradiance (Ed) and one to measure upwelling
radiance (Lu).  Both radiometers have a spectral resolution of
~1.3 nm from 400 nm to 720 nm giving 256 channels in the visible
spectrum, capable of sampling at 3 Hz.  The spatial resolution of
the upwelling radiance measurement is ~10 m when the aircraft is
flown at 300 m with one pixel sampling alongtrack of the aircraft.

Twenty-seven flights were conducted during the Summer 2001 COAST
field project.  Several of these flights surveyed the various
stages of spin-up, progression, and slackening of upwelling cycles.
Preliminary color products show typical distributions of higher
chlorophyll concentrations corresponding to cold upwelled waters
nearshore, as well as spectrally complex waters near river and bay
outflow areas.  Also, sequences of flights mapped residual plumes
and their movement several days after the upwelling conditions
were gone.  These and other observations will be presented in detail
in this poster.

Additional Resources: http://www.marine.unc.edu/cool/COAST