Satellite nutrient maps

Passive satellite measurements of reflected intensity at visible wavelengths allow mapping of ocean color. Ocean color is dominated by the amount of chlorophyll and phaeopigments present, which in turn can be related to primary productivity. Ocean color is also an important indicator of the presence or absence of nutrients and various physical oceanographic phenomena. 

The advent of easy access to the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) and availability of off-the-shelf portable probes and rapid analyzers for a number of water quality determinants have enabled the development of systems that can be carried on small survey vessels to map water quality conditions. Rapid data acquisition is now practical using probes and sondes for measuring temperature, conductivity, turbidity, pH, and dissolved oxygen fluorometric technologies for chlorophyll biomass and phytoplankton composition flow injection and loop flow analysis for some nutrient species and acoustic Doppler-based devices for current profiling. 

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