One of the overarching goals of NASA s CMS program is to promote and enhance the utility of its presently available and planned space based assets for better understanding of our planet s carbon cycle…

This federal contract award to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, operating as Columbia University, supports research to improve satellite-based measurements of ocean net primary production (NPP) and enhance understanding of the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle. The $865,926 grant is part of NASA's CMS (Carbon Monitoring System) program, which aims to promote the utility of space-based assets for studying the Earth's carbon cycle. The project will develop a novel Bio-Optical Monitoring and Evaluation System (BIOMES) that uses multi-sensor satellite data, models, and in-situ measurements to better characterize oceanic biogeochemical provinces and improve estimates of NPP. This work is responsive to the NASA ROSES NNH18ZDA001N-CMS solicitation and will contribute to NASA's efforts to generate high-quality, well-calibrated ocean carbon cycle data products. The contract does not have a set-aside designation and runs through June 30, 2025.

One of the overarching goals of NASA s CMS program is to promote and enhance the utility of its presently available and planned space based assets for better understanding of our planet s carbon cycle and interactions among its atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic carbon components. An essential requirement of this program is that sensors aboard these missions provide well calibrated, long-time series products of the highest quality and accuracy. For ocean ecosystems, accurate and well-characterized basin and global scale measurements of oceanic net primary production (NPP) are central to understanding the ocean carbon cycle, and the role and response of ocean ecosystems to rising CO2 levels. Despite considerable progress, current satellite oceanic NPP products continue to be beleaguered by large uncertainties, in large part, because most NPP models rely on inputs that are based on one-size fits- all algorithms. Additionally, most biogeochemical province-based approaches that are used for scaling-up of limited shipboard measurements from local to basin and global scales are coarse in their resolution and are incapable of capturing sub-mesoscale oceanographic features visible in higher-resolution satellite imagery. In this study, we propose a way forward to improve satellite based NPP measurements with assessments of uncertainties, through development of a novel BIO-optical monitoring and evaluation system (biomes) that offers a more sophisticated and pragmatic approach for extending local shipboard measurements of NPP to regional and basin scales. Biomes relies on an optical- biogeochemical classification (o-BGC) scheme developed by US. IT uses multi-platform, multi-sensor satellite data, model outputs and in-situ data to partition the oceans into dynamic provinces that capture sub-mesoscale features that are often overlooked as separate biogeochemical provinces in currently used approaches. Our proposed study will leverage off: 1) several in-situ optical and BIO-optical datasets including NPP data collected by our team, and by others, as part of programs previously supported by NASA, NOAA and other agencies, 2) in-situ BIO-optical, phytoplankton photo-physiology and NPP data planned for collection during our upcoming NOAA-viirs CAL/VAL cruises in 2019 and 2020, as well as data from the exports-phase 1 cruises that have more intensive NPP measurement plans. Our goal is to develop biomes as a template for future ocean carbon cycle study cruises, ensuring that each oceanic biogeochemical province discriminated by biomes is adequately sampled. This is an essential step moving forward for improving NPP estimates from space. Satellite-based NPP and other products achieved by this study with associated uncertainty assessments will allow for more accurate assessments of the oceans role in the global carbon cycle. Additional contributions to NASA CMS program that would result from this study are as follows: a) a comprehensive compilation of measurements of inherent optical properties [iops, including phytoplankton absorption and particle scattering], b) a compilation of biogeochemical stocks [phytoplankton functional types (pfts), phytoplankton size classes (pscs), phytoplankton pigments], c) NPP and photo-physiological rate parameters, across a variety of ecosystem states, that would be valuable for augmenting NASA s seawifs BIO-optical archive storage system (seabass) and for fine-tuning of algorithms for NPP and other ocean color standard products at relevant measurement scales applicable to current (modis-aqua, snpp-viirs) and future plankton aerosols cloud and ecosystems (pace) NASA missions. Our planned study is responsive to NASA roses NNH18ZDA001N-CMS. Our eventual plan is to ensure that the framework for obgc and biomes are easily transferable to other ocean color missions, as an effective means to generate NPP. PIS goes and WEI are requesting membership in the CMS science team.