# Presentation: 438317

## Coastal Ocean Carbon Observations and Applications (COCOA)

- _[ ](http://www.cooa.sr.unh.edu/)_

**Janet W. Campbell,****1**** Carl F. Bruce Jr,****2**** Paul M. DiGiacomo,****3**** Mary-Elena Carr,****4**** Andrew Bingham,****2**** Lloyd French,****2**** and Robert Green****2**

- The Coastal Ocean Carbon Observations and Analysis (COCOA) mission is focused on the goal of quantifying pools and fluxes of carbon in the coastal ocean, knowledge of which is essential for understanding the role of the global carbon cycle in climate variability and change.  The COCOA mission involves the synergistic use of high-resolution spectral reflectance data from a hyperspectral imager in geostationary orbit, coupled with complementary satellite and field measurements, and integrated within a modeling framework. The mission concept was developed by a science team in collaboration with engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  This concept was submitted to the Decadal Survey and subsequently combined with other geostationary missions to form the GEO-CAPE mission.

**Science Objectives and Strategy**

**Abstract**

**Science Team (2003-2005)**

**Sampling Strategy**

**Robert Arnone**	Head Ocean Sciences Branch, Naval Research Laboratory
**William Balch**	Senior Scientist, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
**Janet Campbell**	Research Professor, University of New Hampshire
**Mary-Elena Carr**	Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
**Francisco Chavez**	Senior Scientist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
**Paul DiGiacomo**	Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
**Mark Dowell**	Research Professor, University of New Hampshire
**Robert Green**	AVIRIS Experiment Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
**Nicolas Gruber**	Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
**Chuanmin Hu**	Research Professor, University of South Florida
**Marlon Lewis**	Professor, Dalhousie University and President, Satlantic Inc.
**Stephane Maritorena**	Research Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
**Curt Mobley**	Vice President and Senior Scientist, Sequoia Scientific, Inc
**Mark Moline**	Assoc. Professor, California Polytechnic State University
**John Ryan**	Project Scientist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
**Dariusz Stramski**	Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD
**Charles Trees**	Research Professor, San Diego Sate University
**Kirk Waters**	Program Officer, NOAA Coastal Services Center

- 1 Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824.  Email: janet.campbell@unh.edu;  2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA; 3 NOAA-NESDIS, Camp Springs, MD; 4 Columbia University, New York, NY

- COCOA will quantify the particulate and dissolved carbon species in coastal waters.
- High temporal resolution from GEO allows for the separation of physical and biogeochemical processes that influence carbon pools and fluxes.
- By intensively focusing on North America, COCOA will quantify representative coastal processes that impact the *global* carbon cycle:

- Eastern boundary current and coastal upwelling (California Current)
- Western boundary current (Gulf Stream)
- Major riverine inputs (Mississippi River)
- Episodic features (storms, algal blooms)

**Orbit****:****  **
- Numerous orbital configurations were studied: Geosynchronous with various inclinations, MEO, Elliptical – Molniya, GTO, LEO
- A **geostationary** orbit at 100° - 90° West longitude was selected because it provides the greatest amount of annual revisit time for the coastal U.S.

-  Six scans are required to image the entire U.S. East and Gulf coasts.
-  The scan regions illustrated here extend 200 km from the coast and cover the continental shelf and beyond.
-  The spatial resolution ranges from < 250 m in the Gulf of Mexico to > 300 m in the Gulf of Maine.

-  Four scans are required to image the key coastal zones of the eastern Pacific.
-  The scan regions illustrated here extend 100 km from the coast and cover the continen tal shelf and beyond.
-  The mean spatial resolution ranges from 260 m in Los Angeles to 320 m in Seattle.

- 	Engineering teams at JPL conducted feasibility studies in the summer of 2003 and modeled the instrument end-to-end performance.

**	****Modes of Operation:  **
- 	COCOA will have two modes of operation.  In the default Synoptic mode the entire U.S. coastal zone will be imaged 4-6 times each day.  The Experiment & Event mode will be used to intensively image regions during the focused science experiments or during significant events such as storms or harmful algal blooms.

| Mode | Maximum number of scans | Total scan time | Total volume | Maximum number of opportunities |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Synoptic | 10 | 2-3 hours | ~30 GBytes |  6 |
| Experiment & Event | 1 | 10-15 min | ~2 GBytes | >20 |

*The mission strategy is to conduct a series of focused experiments with intensive in situ sampling.*

- Harmful algal blooms

- Hurricanes and other storm events

- Upwelling systems

- Riverine fluxes

**Sampling Scenarios:**
- The **synoptic** **mode** provides 4 looks per day of each coast.
- The three **experiment modes** sample one coast more frequently for a period of time (e.g., continuously for a month during a focused experiment) or to capture an “event”.

**Instrument Design**

- The geostationary vantage point provides the sampling frequency needed to resolve dynamic processes in coastal regions which are dominated by tides and winds. It has the added advantage of mitigating losses due to cloud cover and fog.

- The NASA Earth Science Enterprise roadmap for the Carbon, Ecosystems, and Biogeochemistry Theme includes a coastal carbon mission.

**COCOA scans from offshore to inshore**
- contours show mean pixel resolution (m)

| COCOA Instrument Description and Performance |  |
| --- | --- |
| Optics | F/5 Cassegrain telescope and Offner Spectrometer |
| Focal Plane Array | Visible CMOS/CCD detector |
| Primary Mirror | ~ 50 cm diameter |
| Mass / Power | 71 kg / 50 W |
| Spatial Resolution at Nadir | 200 m |
| Spectral Sample | 5 nm between 350 and 1050 nm |
| SNR | 600 to 1000 between 400 and 800 nm at 10 nm |

- COCOA leverages integration time to obtain more sensitivity than MODIS at smaller spatial scales

**Summary**