Between August 1996 and April 1998, an Antarctic Environment and Southern Ocean Process Study (AESOPS) was performed as part of the United States Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (US JGOFS).  Ten AESOPS month-long cruises took place in the Southern Ocean during this time period.  This web site presents monthly satellite imagery of sea ice cover and chlorophyll-a concentrations in the Southern Ocean during the time period of these cruises.  

Sea Ice Images

Sea ice coverage data have been collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center
(NSIDC) in the polar regions since mid 1987. The sea ice coverage is measured daily using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) mounted on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F8, F11 and F13 platforms. The original data are binned daily and monthly on a polar stereographic projection.  The sea ice data were provided by the EOS Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.

This site presents monthly subsets of these data near the south pole, re-mapped to an equal-angle grid of approximately 9 km resolution. The purpose of this re-mapping is to ease comparison of the sea ice coverage data with mapped data from other satellite sensors such as SeaWiFS. The re-mapped images are freely available to download from this site. Weekly images of sea ice coverage in the Southern Ocean are also available.  The data in their original format may be requested from the NSIDC.

Chlorophyll-a images

Chlorophyll-a concentrations are from the Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS), which was operational from November 1996 - June 1997, and the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS), operational since September 1997.  The satellite images presented here are monthly level 3 GAC (global area coverage) data, with a spatial resolution of 9 km. 

The OCTS data were processed by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).  Version 4.0 of the monthly OCTS data was used.

The SeaWiFS images were created using data from the second processing of SeaWiFS data by the SeaWiFS Project at Goddard Space Flight Center, on Sep 30 1998.  The data were obtained from the Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center under the auspices of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Use of these data is in accord with the SeaWiFS Research Data Use Terms and Conditions Agreement.  Daily SeaWiFS images are also available.  

NOTE: You must be a SeaWiFS Authorized User to download SeaWiFS images from this site!

This study is part of an ongoing research effort in the Southern Ocean by the Oregon State University (O.S.U.) Remote Sensing Ocean Optics (ORSOO) group.

Webpage by Jasmine S. Bartlett, Oregon State University.