CoastWatch ocean color products will not be generated from SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor) data for dates after 17 March 2009, as NOAA's access to 1-kilometer resolution SeaWiFS/OV-2 data from the commercial vendor GeoEye expires 17 March 2009.

CoastWatch users will still be able to use MODIS/Aqua-derived ocean color products. CoastWatch will generate MERIS/Envisat-derived ocean color products operationally before SeaWiFS data access expires. Because the MERIS swath width is narrower, users should expect reduced geographic coverage compared to SeaWiFS (Figs. 1 and 2). Also, MERIS/Envisat-derived ocean color products are not as timely as SeaWiFS/OV2-derived ocean color products (Fig. 3), due to intermittent ESA delays posting MERIS source data.

Figure 1. The swath width of the SeaWiFS sensor is wide enough to cover nearly the entire Gulf of Mexico (16 Dec 2008).

Figure 2. The swath width of the MERIS sensor is only wide enough to cover about half of the Gulf of Mexico (16 Dec 2008).

Figure 3. Recent ocean color product timeliness typically has been 6 hours from satellite observation for both MERIS and SeaWiFS. Since SeaWiFS data became available again on 18 Aug 2008, SeaWiFS has had one delay of more than 24 hours; MERIS has had eleven delays of more than 24 hours. (0 hours indicates no data available that day.)

Contact Information:
Linda Stathoplos
Satellite Services Division
NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD
301-763-8142 x137