PACE "First Light" Composite

PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) detects light across a hyperspectral range from the ultraviolet to near-infrared, which gives scientists new information to differentiate communities of phytoplankton – a unique ability of NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite. This first image released from OCI identifies two different communities of these microscopic marine organisms in the ocean off South Africa on Feb. 28, 2024. The central panel of this image shows <em>Synechococcus</em> in pink and picoeukaryotes in green. The left panel of this image shows a natural color view of the ocean, and the right panel displays the concentration of chlorophyll-a, a photosynthetic pigment used to identify the presence of phytoplankton.

Credit: NASA. Download this image (PNG, 3.7 MB).

[10-Apr-24] PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) detects light across a hyperspectral range from the ultraviolet to near-infrared, which gives scientists new information to differentiate communities of phytoplankton – a unique ability of NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite. This first image released from OCI identifies two different communities of these microscopic marine organisms in the ocean off South Africa on Feb. 28, 2024. The central panel of this image shows Synechococcus in pink and picoeukaryotes in green. The left panel of this image shows a natural color view of the ocean, and the right panel displays the concentration of chlorophyll-a, a photosynthetic pigment used to identify the presence of phytoplankton.