The NOAA version of ATHENA runs on NT and is currently interfaced to Inmarsat C transceivers(with multitasking) on their ships.
Recommend you consider Fluorometer sensor for detection and quantization of chlorophyll in the water column. There's where the primary production of glucose occurs with photosynthesis. Perhaps a biologist among you will corroborate this and how relevant this is to biomass primary production.
Information about the Athena system as it is used at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is available here.