Toby Westberry, along with Michael Behrenfeld and Jason Graff, received NASA funding in support of the ‘The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem’ (PACE) mission. PACE is currently expected to launch in late 2022 and will convey unprecedented observational capabilities for investigating global surface ocean biology. Westberry’s new project focuses on developing a launch-ready algorithm for estimating phytoplankton Net Primary Production (NPP) rates using PACE hyperspectral radiometric data. The project also entails a product validation effort using existing field measurements and will generate pixel-level uncertainty estimates to accompany the NPP product. (Total funding ~$530k)
Learn more about NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission.