NASA Remote Sensing and the NE Pacific

## Potential NASA Support for Remote Sensing Studies Related to the GLOBEC/CoOP/COP Northeast Pacific Study

NASA is planning to release a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) in early 1997, soliciting proposals for remote sensing research related to biological oceanography, including studies of biological variability of major coastal and open ocean ecosystems. The focus of this NRA is on research emphasizing satellite ocean color scanner imagery as the principal data source, but NASA believes that timing is ideal to integrate measurements from multiple ocean remote sensing instruments such as OCTS (and SeaWiFS), AVHRR-SST, TOPEX and NSCAT to study coupling of biological and physical processes. One of the important new data sources is Local Area Coverage (LAC), full spatial resolution OCTS ocean color and temperature imagery to be produced under a cooperative program ("Intensive LAC" or "I-LAC") between NASA/NOAA, NASDA and ESA. Under the I-LAC program, NASA and NOAA will generate a scientific-quality time series (image collection began on 13 November, 1996) of OCTS LAC imagery covering North American coastal waters extending out approximately 1000 km from the coast. NASA/NOAA and NASDA will cooperate to produce a similar image time series for the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

For more information on the upcoming NRA and possible NASA involvement in the Northeast Pacific Study, contact Dr. James A. Yoder, Mission to Planet Earth, Code YS, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546 (Phone: 202-358-0310 or Email: jyoder@hq.nasa.gov).