CSIRO scientists will be able to peer beneath the waves using data from the international environmental satellite ADEOS (Advanced Earth Observing Satellite), to be launched by a Japanese rocket on Saturday.

"ADEOS and its instruments are the culmination of twenty years development" said CSIRO marine biologist John Parslow. "Satellite ocean colour sensors give us vital information about phytoplankton. These tiny single-celled plants are at the base of the ocean food chain.

"Changes to the phytoplankton are shown by changes in the colour of light reflected from the ocean, and we can now measure this very precisely."

For example, said Dr Parslow, as phytoplankton chlorophyll increases through ocean upwelling which brings nutrients to the surface, the colour of the reflected light shifts from deep blue to green.

"Information from ADEOS will have applications ranging from global climate prediction to fisheries," said Dr Parslow.

The Ocean Colour and Temperature Scanner instrument aboard the new Japanese satellite will end a 10-year gap in ocean colour satellites. The first images will be received by CSIRO early next year.

Dr Parslow said the appetite of marine scientists for colour data had been stimulated by images supplied by the NIMBUS-7 satellite, launched in 1978. This was able to provide the first images describing the global distribution of phytoplankton chlorophyll.

Also on board ADEOS are instruments for measuring global concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols. After launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre, ADEOS will maintain an orbit 800 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

More information from: Dr John Parslow 002-325202 or Keith Bashford 0418-126-395