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Lone sailor saved by satellite iceberg warning.

Lone sailor saved by satellite iceberg warning.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP Satellite Sees Tropical Cyclone Bansi's Eye Almost Quadruple in Area.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP Satellite Sees Tropical Cyclone Bansi's Eye Almost Quadruple in Area.

The decline in numbers of reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) throughout their range has highlighted the need for improved information on their spatial ecology in order to design effective conservation strategies for vulnerable populations. To understand their patterns of movement in Seychelles, we used three techniques-archival pop-up satellite tags, acoustic tags, and photo-identification-and focussed on the aggregation at D'Arros Island and St. Joseph Atoll within the Amirantes Group. M. alfredi were photographed within six of the seven Island Groups of Seychelles, with 64% of individuals being resighted at least once between July 2006 and December 2019 over timeframes of 1-3,462 days (9.5 years; median = 1,018 days). Only three individuals from D'Arros Island were resighted at a second aggregation site located more than 200 km away at St. François Atoll during photo-identification surveys. Satellite-tracked M. alfredi (n = 5 tracks; maximum 180 days) remained within the boundary of the Seychelles Exclusive Economic Zone, where they spent the majority of their time (87%) in the upper 50 m of the water column in close proximity to the Amirantes Bank. The inclusion of acoustic tagging data in the models of estimated satellite-track paths significantly reduced the errors associated with the geolocation positions derived from archived light level data. The insights gained into the patterns of horizontal and vertical movements of M. alfredi using this multi-technique approach highlight the significance of D'Arros Island and St. Joseph Atoll, and the wider Amirantes Group, to M. alfredi in Seychelles, and will benefit future conservation efforts for this species within Seychelles and the broader Western Indian Ocean.

Surface and sub-surface ocean temperature observations collected by sea turtles (ST) during the first phase (Jan 2019-April 2020) of the Sea Turtle for Ocean Research and Monitoring (STORM) project are compared against in-situ and satellite temperature measurements, and later relied upon to assess the performance of the Glo12 operational ocean model over the west tropical Indian Ocean. The evaluation of temperature profiles collected by STs against collocated ARGO drifter measurements show good agreement at all sample depths (0-250 m). Comparisons against various operational satellite sea surface temperature (SST) products indicate a slight overestimation of ST-borne temperature observations of ∼0.1°±°0.6° that is nevertheless consistent with expected uncertainties on satellite-derived SST data. Comparisons of ST-borne surface and subsurface temperature observations against Glo12 temperature forecasts demonstrate the good performance of the model surface and subsurface (50 m), the model is, however, shown to significantly underestimate ocean temperatures as already noticed from global evaluation scores performed operationally at the basin scale. The distribution of model errors also shows significant spatial and temporal variability in the first 50 m of the ocean, which will be further investigated in the next phases of the STORM project.

Ocean primary production is the basis of the marine food web, sustaining life in the ocean via photosynthesis, and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Recently, a small but significant decrease in global marine primary production has been reported based on ocean color data, which was mostly ascribed to decreases in primary production in the northern Indian Ocean, particularly in the Bay of Bengal. Available reports on primary production from the Bay of Bengal (BoB) are limited, and due to their spatial and temporal variability difficult to interpret. Primary production in the BoB has historically been described to be driven by diatom and chlorophyte clades, while only more recent datasets also show an abundance of smaller cyanobacterial primary producers visually difficult to detect. The different character of the available datasets, i.e., direct counts, metagenomic and biogeochemical data, and satellite-based ocean color observations, make it difficult to derive a consistent pattern. However, making use of the most highly resolved dataset based on satellite imaging, a shift in community composition of primary producers is visible in the BoB over the last 2 decades. This shift is driven by a decrease in chlorophyte abundance and a coinciding increase in cyanobacterial abundance, despite stable concentrations of total chlorophyll. A similar but somewhat weaker trend is visible in the Arabian Sea, where satellite imaging points towards decreasing abundances of chlorophytes in the north and increasing abundances of cyanobacteria in the eastern parts. Statistical analysis indicated a correlation of this community change in the BoB to decreasing nitrate concentrations, which may provide an explanation for both the decrease in eukaryotic nitrate-dependent primary producers and the increase in small unicellular cyanobacteria related to Prochlorococcus, which have a comparably higher affinity to nitrate. Changes in community composition of primary producers and an

The potential to better observe the weather and climate over the Indian Ocean has received a major boost with the arrival this week of EUMETSAT's Meteosat-8 satellite in its new position of 41.5°E.

The potential to better observe the weather and climate over the Indian Ocean has received a major boost with the arrival this week of EUMETSAT's Meteosat-8 satellite in its new position of 41.5°E.

Researchers at Swansea University, working with colleagues in Australia and the Seychelles, have announced the longest recorded migration for the green sea turtle, an endangered species. One of eight turtles which were tracked by satellite was found to have travelled 3979 km, from the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, to the coast of Somalia in east Africa.

Flight MH370: Malaysia releases raw satellite data.

Satellite tracking reveals green turtles travel staggering distances across Indian Ocean.

SHARK Bay and the coastline off Karratha and Perth may be popular eateries for whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), satellite tracking has revealed.

SHARK Bay and the coastline off Karratha and Perth may be popular eateries for whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), satellite tracking has revealed.

Extensive seagrass meadows discovered in Indian Ocean through satellite tracking of green turtles.

Satellites help track ocean acidification in the Bay of Bengal.

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Northern Indian Ocean on May 18, it gathered water vapor data that showed the intensity of powerful Tropical Cyclone Amphan. Amphan is the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Satellite imagery reveals a severe die-off of mangroves along Australia's northern coast. More than 7,000 hectares (27 square miles) of mangroves have dried up, research indicates. The tree deaths come amid high temperatures that have also been linked to massive coral bleaching and kelp forest deaths in the region.

Chlorophyll-a can be used as a proxy for phytoplankton and thus is an essential water quality parameter. The presence of phytoplankton in the ocean causes selective absorption of light by chlorophyll-a pigment resulting in change of the ocean color that can be identified by ocean color remote sensing. The accuracy of chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a) estimated from remote sensing sensors depends on the bio-optical algorithm used for the retrieval in specific regional waters. In this work, it is attempted to estimate Chl-a from two currently active satellite sensors with relatively good spatial resolutions considering ocean applications. Suitability of two standard bio-optical Ocean Color (OC) Chlorophyll algorithms, OC-2 (2-band) and OC-3 (3-band) in estimating Chl-a for turbid waters of the northern coastal Bay of Bengal is assessed. Validation with in-situ data showed that OC-2 algorithm gives an estimate of Chl-a with a better correlation of 0.795 and least bias of 0.35 mg/m3. Further, inter-comparison of Chl-a retrieved from the two sensors, Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI was also carried out. The variability of Chl-a during winter, pre-monsoon, and post-monsoon seasons over the study region were inter-compared. It is observed that during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, Chl-a from MSI is over estimated compared to OLI. This work is a preliminary step toward estimation of Chl-a in the coastal oceans utilizing available better spatially resolved sensors.

Storms associated with the advancing monsoon in the Northern Indian Ocean's Bay of Bengal were analyzed by NASA with the GPM or Global Precipitation Measurement mission core satellite.

Researchers have found a new way to use satellites to monitor the Great Whirl, a massive whirlpool the size of Colorado that forms each year off the coast of East Africa, they report in a new study.

Marine scientists have mapped previously unknown foraging grounds and migratory routes of Western Australia's green turtles to support conservation of the iconic threatened species.

In recent years, shoreline determination has become an issue of increasing importance and concern, especially at the local level, as sea level continues to rise. This study identifies the rates of absolute and net erosion, accretion, and shoreline stabilization along the coast of Kuakata, a vulnerable coastal region in south-central Bangladesh. Shoreline change was detected by applying remote sensing and geographic information system (RS-GIS)-based techniques by using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) satellite images at 30-m resolution from 1989, 2003, 2010, and 2020. The band combination (BC) method was used to extract the shoreline (i.e., land-water boundary) due to its improved accuracy over other methods for matching with the existing shoreline position. This study also used participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools which revealed the societal impacts caused by the shoreline changes. Coupling RS-GIS and PRA techniques provides an enhanced understanding of shoreline change and its impacts because PRA enriches the RS-GIS outcomes by contextualizing the findings. Results show that from 1989 to 2020, a total of 13.59 km2 of coastal land was eroded, and 3.27 km2 of land was accreted, suggesting that land is retreating at about 0.32 km2 yr-1. Results from the PRA tools support this finding and demonstrate that fisheries and tourism are affected by the shoreline change. These results are important in Kuakata, a major tourist spot in Bangladesh, because of the impacts on fisheries, recreation, resource extraction, land use planning, and coastal risk management.