Nearly complete cloud-free coverage is achieved over the course of about one week as cloud patterns shift. SeaWiFS data will allow routine assessment of global vegetation patterns, both land and ocean, needed to understand the world's ecosystems and global change. SeaWiFS is an essential component of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, an ongoing effort to study how the global environment is changing. Using the unique perspective available from space, NASA will observe, monitor and assess large-scale environmental processes, such as the oceans' productivity, focusing on climate change. This color composite highlights vegetation associated with land morphology, e.g., the coastal plain and mountain ridges and valleys.
White areas are clouds and dense aerosols.
Note that ocean features are not noticeable. Ocean patterns are clearly evident such as plumes of material discharging out of eastern Long Island Sound. Red and yellow areas in Chesapeake Bay indicate turbid waters while the blue hues offshore represent clear oceanic water. Black areas such as in the right bottom corner are locations where the processing could not be completed because of cloud cover and other quality control tests conducted during the processing. Using the unique perspective available from space, NASA will observe, monitor and assess large-scale environmental processes, such as the oceans' productivity, focusing on climate change.