A Product Portfolio Management Approach to Hyperspectral Ocean Color

Coastal and marine living resources are an important part of the United States economy and its cultural identity. In 2020, commercial and recreational fisheries accounted for 1.7 million jobs and $253 billion in sales. Trends and changes to marine and coastal ecosystems require robust monitoring over large spatial scales that can be enhanced by the use of remote sensing. Satellite hyperspectral ocean color data promises to greatly amplify and expand our capabilities to monitor the complex coastal, estuarine and pelagic systems. NASA’s PACE mission is anticipated to launch in January 2024 and its advanced spectral resolution will enable product enhancements and new product development that could help coastal and fisheries managers better monitor aquatic resources and habitats. At the present, multispectral ocean color satellite instruments, such as MODIS on the satellite Aqua, have upwards of 9 ocean color spectral bands. The ocean color instrument on PACE will have over 100 spectral bands. This emerging technology will go beyond chlorophyll-a measurements and allow for more complex assessments of phytoplankton community composition including pigment types, size classes, and phytoplankton functional types.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has shifted towards a Product Portfolio Management (PPM) approach for all level 2+ satellite products to help revolutionize a sensor agnostic algorithm approach that is highly responsive to user needs in direct alignment with the NOAA Mission. In particular, the Ocean Biology Portfolio is set to grow under this new approach, especially with the onset of satellite hyperspectral ocean color. Presently, the Ocean Biology Product Portfolio Manager is working across NOAA to develop and operationalize satellite products including coastally-resolved chlorophyll products which could lead to better water mass classifications and a net primary productivity algorithm specifically catered for a fisheries management application. Part of this endeavor will include a novel direct connection between NASA and NOAA to rapidly get new PACE products directly from NASA into NOAA operations, avoid duplicative product development, and collaboratively innovate and enhance products when possible. Over the next few years, the powerful combination of hyperspectral ocean color and a Product Portfolio Management approach will be utilized to achieve both NASA’s science goals in Earth Sciences and NOAA’s strategic goals in support of the Blue Economy.