| AGENCY | NASA (USA) |
| SATELLITE | Nimbus-7 (USA) |
| OPERATING DATES | 24/10/78 – 22/06/867 |
| SWATH (km) | 1556 |
| RESOLUTION (m) | 825 |
| # OF BANDS | 6 |
| SPECTRAL COVERAGE(nm) | 433-12500 |
Data Sources:
- NASA’s Ocean Color Web: Online Distribution for all Ocean Color Products
- NASA’s multi-mission browse/order/distribution web browser – includes CZCS Visual Browse Tool
CZCS Links:
CZCS Publications:
Aarup, T., Groom, S. and Holligan, P.M. (1989). CZCS imagery of the North Sea. Remote Sensing of Atmosphere and Oceans. Adv. Space Res., 9: 443-451.
Aarup, T., Groom, S. and Holligan, P.M. (1990). The processing and interpretation of North Sea CZCS imagery. Neth. J. Sea Res., 25: 3-9.
André, J.-M., and Morel, A. (1991). Atmospheric corrections and interpretation of marine radiances in CZCS imagery, revisited. Oceanol. Acta., 14: 3-22.
Antoine, D., Morel, A., Gentili, B., Gordon, H.R., and Barzon, V.F., Evans, R.H., Brown, J.W., Walsh, S., Baringer, W., and Li, A. (2003). In Search of Long-term Trends in Ocean Color. EOS, 84(32): 301,308-309. [PDF file]
Banse, K., and English, D.C. (2000). Geographical differences in seasonality of CZCS-derived phytoplankton pigment in the Arabian Sea for 1978-1986. Deep-Sea Res. II, 47: 1623-1677.
Barale, V. and Fay, R.W. (1986). Variability of the ocean surface color field in central California near-coastal waters as observed in a seasonal analysis of CZCS imagery. J. Mar. Res., 44: 291-316.
Barale, V. and Schlittenhardt, P.M., eds. (1993). Ocean colour: theory and applications in a decade of CZCS experience, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 367 p.
Bricaud, A. and Morel, A. (1987). Atmospheric corrections and interpretation of marine radiances in CZCS imagery: use of a reflectance model. Oceanol. Acta., SP: 33-50.
Bricaud, A., Morel, A. and André, J.M. (1987). Spatial/temporal variability of algal biomass and potential productivity in the Mauritanian upwelling zone, as estimated from CZCS data. Adv. Space Res., 7:(2) 53-62.
Carder, K.L., Gregg, W.W., Costello, D.K., Haddad, K. and Prospero, J.M. (1991). Determination of Saharan dust radiance and chlorophyll from CZCS imagery. J. Geophys. Res., 96: 5369-5378.
Davenport, R., Neuer, S., Hernandez-Guerra, A., Rueda, M.-J., Llinas, O., Fischer, G., and Wefer, G. (1999). Seasonal and interannual pigment concentration in the Canary Islands region from CZCS data and comparison with observations from the ESTOC. Intl. J. Rem. Sens., 20: 1419-1433.
Dupouy, C. and Demarcq, H. (1987). NIMBUS-7 CZCS as a help for understanding the mechanism of phytoplankton productivity during upwelling off Senegal. Adv. Space Res., 7(2): 63-71.
Fuentes-Yaco, C., Vézina, A.F., Gosselin, M., Gratton, Y. and Larouche, P. (1996). Influence of late-summer storms on the horizontal variabillity of phytoplankton pigment determined by Coastal Zone Color Scanner images in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. In: Ocean Optics XIII, S. G. Ackleson, R. Frouin, Eds.) Proc. SPIE, 2963:678-683.
Fuentes-Yaco, C., Larouche, P. and Vézina, A.F. (1993). Primary production in the Gulf of St. Lawrence: 1979-80 CZCS imagery. Proceedings of the 16th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing, Sherbrooke, Canada, 113-118.
Fuentes-Yaco, C., Vézina, A.F., Larouche, P., Vigneau, C., Gosselin, M. and Levasseur, M. (1997). Phytoplankton pigment in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, as determined by the Coastal Zone Color Scanner – Part 1: Spatio-temporal variability. Cont. Shelf Res., 17(12): 1421-1439.
Fuentes-Yaco, C., Vézina, A.F., Larouche, P., Gratton, Y. and Gosselin, M. (1997). Phytoplankton pigment in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, as determined by the Coastal Zone Color Scanner – Part 2: multivariate analysis.Cont. Shelf Res., 17(12): 1441-1459.
Gordon, H.R., Clark, D.K., Brown, J.W., Brown, O.B., Evans, R.H. and Broenkow, W.W. (1983). Phytoplankton pigment concentrations in the Middle Atlantic Bight: comparison of ship determinations and CZCS estimates. Appl. Optics, 22: 20-36.
Gregg, W.W., Conkright, M.E. (2001) Global Seasonal Climatologies of Ocean Chlorophyll: Blending In situ and Satellite Data for the CZCS Era, J. Geophys. Res., 106: 2499-2515.
Harris, G.P., Feldman, G.C. and Griffiths, F.B. (1993). Global Oceanic Production and Climate Change. In: Ocean Colour: Theory and Applications in a Decade of CZCS Experience, V. Barale and P. M. Schlittenhardt (eds.),Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 237-270.
Hooker, S.B., McClain, C.R. and Holmes, A. (1993). Ocean color imaging: CZCS to SeaWiFS. MTS J., 27: 3-15.
Ishizaka, J. (1990a). Coupling of coastal zone color scanner data to a physical-biological model of the southeastern U.S. continental shelf ecosystem 1. CZCS data description and Lagrangian particle tracing experiments. J. Geophys. Res., 95: 20,167-20,181.
Ishizaka, J. (1990c). Coupling of coastal zone color scanner data to a physical-biological model of the southeastern U.S. continental shelf ecosystem 3. Nutrient and phytoplankton fluxes and CZCS data assimilation. J. Geophys. Res., 95: 20,201-20,212.
Ishizaka, J. and Hofmann, E.E. (1993). Coupling of ocean color data to physical-biological models. In: Ocean Colour: Theory and Applications in a Decade of CZCS Experience, V. Barale and P. M. Schlittenhardt (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 271-288.
Iverson, R.L., Esaias, W.E., and Turpie, K. (2000). Ocean annual phytoplankton carbon and new production, and annual export production estimated with empirical equations and CZCS data. Global Change Biol., 6: 57-72.
Jorgensen, P.V. (1999). Standard CZCS Case 1 algorithms in Danish coastal waters. Intl. J. Remote Sens. 20(7):1289-1301.
Kim, S.-W., Saitoh, S.-I., Ishizaka, J., Isoda, Y., and Kishino, M. (2000). Temporal and spatial variability of phytoplankton pigment concentrations in the Japan Sea derived from CZCS images. J. Oceanogr., 56: 527-538.
Leonard, C.L. and McClain, C.R. (1996). Assessment of interannual variation (1979–1986) in pigment concentrations in the tropical Pacific using the CZCS. Intl. J. Rem. Sens., 17: 721-732.
Longhurst, A. (1995). Interpreting CZCS images of the Amazon Plume: reply to comments by F.E. Muller-Karger, P.L. Richardson and D. McGillicuddy. Deep-Sea Res. I, 42: 2139-2141.
Mueller, J.L. (1988). Nimbus-7 CZCS: electronic overshoot due to cloud reflectance. Appl. Optics, 27: 438-440.
Ogishima, T., Fukushima, H., and Sugimori, Y. (1986). Problems relating to atmospheric correction algorithm for CZCS data in Japanese coastal area. Sora To Umi., 8: 53-63.
Peliz, A.J. and Fiuza, A.F.G. (1999). Temporal and spatial variability of CZCS-derived phytoplankton pigment concentrations off the western Iberian Peninsula. Intl. J. Rem. Sens., 20: 1363-1403.
Sathyendranath, S., and Platt, T. (1993b). Underwater light field and primary production: Application to remote sensing. In: Ocean Colour: Theory and Applications in a Decade of CZCS Experience, V. Barale and P.M. Schlittenhardt (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Brussels, 79-93.
Shannon, L.V., Mostert, S.A., and Schlittenhardt, P. (1984). The Nimbus 7 CZCS experiment in the Benguela current region off southern Africa, February 1980. II — Interpretation of imagery and oceanographic implications. J. Geophys. Res., 89: 4,968-4,976.
Singh, S.M., Cracknell, A.P., and Charlton, J.A. (1983). Comparison between CZCS data from 10 July 1979 and simultaneous in situ measurements for south-eastern Scottish waters. Intl. J. Rem. Sens., 4: 755-784.
Singh, S.M., Cracknell, A.P., and Spitzer, D. (1985). Evaluation of sensitivity decay of Coastal Zone Colour Scanner (CZCS) detectors by comparison with in situ near-surface radiance measurements. Intl. J. Rem. Sens., 6:749-758.
Subramaniam, A., and Carpenter, E.J. (1993). An empirically derived protocol for detection of blooms of the marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium using CZCS imagery. Intl. J. Rem. Sens., 15: 1559-1569.
Subramaniam, A., and Carpenter, E.J. (1994). An empirically derived protocol for the detection of blooms of the marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium using CZCS imagery. Intl. J. Rem. Sens., 15: 1559-1569.
Wilson, W.H., Smith, R.C. and Nolten, J.W. (1981). The CZCS geolocation algorithms. SIO Ref. 81-82, October, 1981. Supported by Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract No. NAS 5-26249. US Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grant No. NA80AA-D-00007.
Yentsch, C.S. (1993). CZCS: Its role in the study of the growth of oceanic phytoplankton. In: Ocean Colour: Theory and Applications in a Decade of CZCS Experience, V. Barale and P. M. Schlittenhardt (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 17-32.
Yoder, J.A., McClain, C.R., Blanton, J.O. and Oey, L.-Y. (1987). Spatial scales in CZCS-chlorophyll imagery of the southeastern U.S. continental shelf. Limnol. Oceanogr., 32: 929-941.
Yoo, S. and Son, S.-H. (1998). Seasonal patterns of phytoplankton biomass change in the Northwestern Pacific Marginal Seas observed by CZCS. Ocean Res., 20: 29-42.
The sixth International Ocean Colour Science (IOCS) meeting will take place in Darmstadt, Germany from 1 – 4 December 2025, hosted by EUMETSAT and ESA with support from other agencies.