EAS 6540 - Ocean Satellite Remote Sensing

Spring. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: one course in marine science or permission of instructor. Co-meets with EAS 3540. Students enrolled in EAS 6540 will be required to develop and submit a research proposal that includes their own research area and that incorporates a satellite remote sensing perspective.

B. Monger.

The goal of the course is to teach participants the basic skills needed to work independently to acquire, analyze and visualize data sets derived from a variety of satellite sensors that provide global estimates of phytoplankton abundance, sea surface temperature ocean wind speeds, and geostrophic currents. An important feature of the course is to develop good Python programming skills that are needed to effectively analyze and visualize satellite data to answer important oceanographic questions. Background lectures will cover the fundamentals of bio-optics, phytoplankton pigment algorithms and, to a lesser extent, the underlying physical principals leading to the measurement of sea surface temperature, ocean wind speed and geostrophic currents. The 3-credit class is taught in an intensive format for 9 weeks with 150 minutes of lecture time and 4hr and 50min of computer lab time each week.