Mapping growth

Leaf area index over land and chlorophyll concentration in surface ocean waters. The Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Colour Instrument will measure the colour of the ocean, which contains latent information on the abundance of the marine microflora. Invisible to the naked eye, phytoplankton have huge collective impact visible from space. Phytoplankton are highly vulnerable to changes in environmental conditions and represent the marine equivalent of the canary in the coal mine. Over land it will provide unique and timely information about vegetation state by measuring variables such as leaf area index, fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation in the plant canopy and terrestrial chlorophyll index.