MODIS Aqua Chla: Daily Ocean Chlorophyll-a from Satellite, 2018-2023

Daily means of chlorophyll-a concentration derived from NASA's Aqua satellite MODIS sensor for the periods 2018-2023 and 2022-2023. The data uses the OCI algorithm recommended by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and processed via SeaDAS software. This resource is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network and represents phytoplankton biomass in ocean surface waters.

Use Cases

• Monitoring phytoplankton bloom dynamics based on daily chlorophyll-a concentration time series.
• Studying ocean primary productivity and carbon cycling based on satellite-derived chlorophyll-a data.
• Validating ocean biogeochemical models based on spatially and temporally explicit chlorophyll-a observations.
• Assessing water quality and marine ecosystem health based on inferred phytoplankton biomass.

Strengths

• Data spans multiple years, specifically covering 2018-2023 and 2022-2023.
• Uses the OCI algorithm, a NASA-recommended method for chlorophyll-a retrieval.
• Derived from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua satellite, a well-established remote sensing platform.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or temporal bias inherent to the satellite's coverage and the data_gov_au source.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, data_gov_au

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua platform, processed using the SeaDAS l2gen software with the OCI algorithm.

Time Range

2018-2023 and 2022-2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 13:55:49.199525; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely global ocean coverage from the Aqua satellite orbit, but specific spatial coverage is not detailed in the input.