In February 2024, NASA launched their PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a Space X Falcon 9 rocket, fitted with an Ocean Color Instrument that uses detectors built at Leonardo in Southampton.
Since the launch, the programme has been transmitting first-of-their-kind measurements of ocean health, air quality and the effects of a changing climate back to earth.
For example, a new high-definition image was captured recently showing the English Channel and the waters around the south coast, featuring patches of vivid blues and greens, which highlight areas of high primary productivity of phytoplankton.
In ecology, primary productivity refers to the rate at which energy is converted to organic substances by photosynthesis. These patterns change seasonally due to sunlight and nutrient availability, and are also impacted by currents, tides and eddies.
Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that contribute to the conversion of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean. Carbon dioxide is critical for photosynthesis, and the carbon is incorporated into phytoplankton cellular material, just as carbon is stored in the wood and leaves of a tree. While humans breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, phytoplankton behave in the opposite way, consuming carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, making them a crucial part of the marine ecosystem.
In contrast to the bright images captured in the English Channel, dark colours indicate high chlorophyll concentrations. In October last year, high chlorophyll concentrations appeared off the southwestern coast of South Africa due to coastal upwelling. Coastal upwelling occurs when deep ocean water is pushed to the surface. This nutrient-rich water is a key food source for phytoplankton, so high chlorophyll concentrations are an indicator of areas with abundant phytoplankton.
Leonardo Space Programme Manager, Matthew Hicks, said: “There are so many firsts in this programme. This is the first time that we’ve had such detailed measurement of our whole global ecosystem at once. The first time that we’ve received transmissions of this data every 1 to 2 days. The first time that we’ve had a level of detection in such granular detail that it is equivalent to seeing 256 colours instead of the previous 8. The fact that core technology is built here in Southampton is an immense source of pride for our engineers and scientists.”
The new observations will allow scientists to detect vegetation characteristics such as concentrations of leaf pigments which play important roles in plant photosynthesis and protection, advancing our ability to understand and measure forest and crop health and productivity from space.
In 2019, the International Monetary Fund published a paper that revealed how phytoplankton and whales produce environmental benefits. Each year, an estimated 37 million tonnes of CO2 – 40% of all global emissions – are captured by phytoplankton, and whales are a key driver of increasing phytoplankton population through nutrient cycles. However, the impact is not just related to emissions, with the findings of a 2024 Nature study showing that when climate warming reduces phytoplankton levels by just 16-26%, the oceans capacity for fish reduces by 38-55%.
Ben Knight, Head of Sustainability at Leonardo in the UK, said: “The NASA PACE mission takes us a step closer to gaining a fuller understanding of phytoplankton in all their complexity. Communities of trillions of phytoplankton are now visible from space in detail that’s never been available before. Innovation and technology can play a crucial role in tackling some of the challenges related to sustainability that we are all facing. The Leonardo detectors used for the NASA PACE mission are a brilliant example of this, as phytoplankton is a vital source of oxygen and a large carbon sink drawing more carbon from the atmosphere than it produces, and so finding ways to better understand and protect these microorganisms can also play a part in wider ocean health whilst creating a positive impact on the global community.”