Australian marine scientists are using satellite colour images to measure the productivity and health of Australia's oceans.

"The new colour images improve our understanding of fish distribution and recruitment, impacts of nutrient run off in coastal waters, and the global uptake of carbon dioxide by the oceans," says CSIRO marine biologist, Dr John Parslow.

"Satellite ocean colour sensors can provide marine scientists with the information we need to understand and model the response of phytoplankton to changes in the ocean and coastal environment.

For more than 20 years marine biologists and oceanographers have been developing technologies to assess from space the abundance of phytoplankton, minute single cell plants that form the foundation of the ocean food chain.

Phytoplankton chlorophyll has a measurable effect on the colour of the ocean.

As phytoplankton chlorophyll increases, the colour of the light upwelling from the ocean shifts from deep blue to green. Ocean colour instruments measure very precisely the spectrum of light reflected from the oceans, allowing accurate estimates of chlorophyll concentration.

The images are coming from the commercial ocean observation satellite Orbview-2, which is carrying an ocean colour instrument package called SeaWiFS.

SeaWiFS ocean colour data will be received by the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, CSIRO's Division of Marine Research in Hobart and the Western Australian Satellite Technology Applications Consortium (WASTAC) in Perth, providing complete coverage of Australian waters.

Scientists at these and other research institutions have recently formed the Australian Ocean Colour Working Group (AOCWG) to coordinate ocean colour research in Australia. "The initial task of developing the satellite ocean colour products, which will be used by marine scientists, will be carried out jointly by the members of the AOCWG," says AIMS remote sensing scientist William Skirving.

Satellite images of Australian coastal waters can be viewed and downloaded from the World Wide Web:

WWW:http://www.aims.gov.au
WWW:http://www.marine.csiro.au/~lband/gallery/seawifs.gif

More information from:

Wendy Ellery, AIMS,	(077) 534 409
William Skirving, AIMS,	(077) 534 357
Dr John Parslow, CSIRO,	(03) 6232 5202
Assoc Professor Mervyn Lynch, WASTAC,	(08) 9266 7540