A Practical Application of Ocean Color Methodology to an Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract

Recently there have been newly launched ocean color satellites which target the coastlines at unprecedented scales. Science education curricula can benefit from the provision of small low-cost spectroradiometers and curriculum supplemental materials that can be incorporated in a “hands on” teaching approach to explain and demonstrate remote sensing reflectance principles. A lesson in which a progressive set of spectral measurements of familiar and unfamiliar objects and natural waters acquired by students using a small fiberoptic probe and spectroradiometer is presented. This lesson has a dual purpose. The first is to serve as a teaching supplement to high school science curricula while paralleling the National Science Education Standards (NSES) for NASA ocean color products, as well as other satellite ocean products such as GLI and MERIS. The second is to focus on the scientific goals of the graduate-school bound undergraduate student by providing a fundamental understanding of the principles of passive ocean color remote sensing that will perhaps nurture the interest of some students toward research involving utilization of NASA’s Earth science data products. We intend to have these spectroradiometers readily available for use by teachers in the Earth sciences through a publicly available technology library.