At the base of oceanic food chain are single-celled organisms or plant like organisms known as Phytoplankton. They are autotrophs in nature, producing their own food with the help of sunlight to produce sugar as fuel. Chlorophyll and other light harvesting pigments are used by Phytoplankton in order to absorb sunlight. Chlorophyll A is a specific pigment used for oxygenic photosynthesis. It absorbs most energy from wavelength of violet-blue and orange-red lights and it reflects back green-yellow light (which is the color observed in most plants). The of Chlorophyll A in the water changes the way sunlight is reflected and absorbed, thus enabling the scientists to map out the location and amount of Chlorophyll A dissolved in the water. The measurement of Chlorophyll A gives insight in the health of the ocean.
Shown below is an animation of the monthly concentrations of Chlorophyll-A in and around the Gulf of Kutch from 2003 to 2013. Note that the data ranges between 0-2 (UNITS) in these images.
DATA AND SOFTWARE
Chlorophyll-A data source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA)Ocean Watch Database- Satellite Datasets- Color- Chlorophyll-a, AQUA MODIS NPP, Global, Science Quality.
Data Visualization Software: Integrated Data Viewer (IDV).
Individual monthly images arranged by year can be found below.
2004
2005
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