NASA's Sentinel-3A OLCI Level-4 Global Binned Earth-observation Reduced Resolution (ERR) Phytoplankton Carbon Data provides phytoplankton carbon concentration derived from ocean-color observations. The dataset is intended for quantifying biomass and carbon stocks, assessing ecosystem productivity, and driving biogeochemical models. This activity was informed by the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG), an interagency effort of the U.S. Government.
Use Cases
- Quantifying phytoplankton biomass and carbon stocks based on derived carbon concentration.
- Assessing ecosystem productivity and change based on phytoplankton carbon data.
- Driving biogeochemical models based on phytoplankton carbon concentration.
- Providing biological context alongside chlorophyll, PAR, SST, and other environmental variables as mentioned in the description.
Strengths
- Derived from NASA ocean-color observations, a trusted source for Earth observation data.
- Provides a specific geophysical variable: phytoplankton carbon concentration (mg m⁻³).
- Version 2022.0 indicates a specific, likely updated, release.
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 nasa_earthdata satellite coverage.
Provenance
- Source
- OB_CLOUD
- Collection Method
- Derived from NASA ocean-color observations via the Sentinel-3A OLCI instrument.
- Geography
- Global