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>> Well let's head out to the
Marshall Space Flight Center

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in Huntsville Alabama where
Lori Meggs is standing by live.

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Lori we are learning
about oceans from space.

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What can you tell us about this?

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>> Lori Meggs: That's right
Amiko [assumed spelling] It's

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called HICO or Hyperspectral
Imager for the Coastal Oceans

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and this is a special camera
that allows scientists

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to study the coastal regions

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and environmentally characterize
those coastal regions,

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the land and the water.

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This camera separates light into
hundreds of wavelength channels

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that provides information on
the composition of the land

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and water along the coast.

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I recently spoke with
one of the investigators

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from the Naval Research
Laboratory

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at Stennis Space
Center to find out more.

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>> Rick Gould:

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It's a hyperspectral
high resolution sensor

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that measures the reflectives
of light out of the water

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so it extends a long time
series of measurements that NASA

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and European countries have
made for several decades

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but it has also several unique
capabilities and applications,

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specific for the scientific
and Naval communities.

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>> Lori Meggs: What are some
of those unique capabilities?

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>> Rick Gould: Well it's
the only sensor in space

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that measures the light
spectrum hyperspectrally.

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So as opposed to some of the
standard ocean color sensors

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that had maybe eight bands,

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HICO has 128 very narrow
resolution bands that help

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up distinguish and unravel
the optical components

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in the water column.

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And those optical properties
influence light penetration

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so they're important for
primary production measurements,

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phytoplankton distributions
as well as topics of interest

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to the Navy, anything
that's impacted

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by the penetration of light.

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>> Lori Meggs: For those

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who don't know what
does hyperspectral mean?

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>> Rick Gould: Okay we're
looking at visible wavelengths

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from about 400 to 900
nanometers at discrete channels

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of about 5.7 nanometers.

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So every 5.7 nanometers

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over that spectral range
we've got a separate signal

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and different phytoplankton
pigments and properties

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in the water absorb
light differently

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so as the light transmitted
from the sun some

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of it reflects off the
surface of the water,

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some of it penetrates and when
it's in the water the dissolved

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and particular material alters
that spectral composition

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and when it's reflected back
to the center we can look

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at that difference and try
and understand what was

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in the water that caused that.

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>> Lori Meggs: So why is
this data important to have?

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>> Rick Gould: Well the
phytoplankton are the base

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of the food chain.

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They're the main source of
primary production in the ocean

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so it's important to
map their distributions

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and understand what controls
their biomass and growth,

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and by measuring
the light coming

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out of the water we can
map these distributions

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on synoptic scales
at very high temporal

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and spatial resolutions
globally.

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>> Lori Meggs: How's
it all work?

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>> Rick Gould: Well HICO
measures the radiance at the top

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of the atmosphere out from the
International Space Station

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so in that signal is the
water leaving radiance

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which is what we're
interested in as well

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as the atmospheric
radiance, which is our noise.

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So after we perform an
atmospheric correction we're

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left with the water
leaving radiance and from

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that spectral signature we can
try and unravel the dissolved

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and particular material
in the water column.

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>> Lori Meggs: So
when did you launch?

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How long have you been there?

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>> Rick Gould: It was launched
and started on the Space Station

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on the 24th of September
in 2009 so it's been

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up there almost four years.

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We've collected over
8100 scenes to date

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and it's been a great
demonstration of the potential

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for hyperspectral imagery,
the optical properties

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and the environmental properties
of interest to the Navy as well

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as the scientific community.

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>> Lori Meggs: Any results
so far that you've shared

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and maybe some spinoffs?

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>> Rick Gould: Sure,
yeah, we've,

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as I said we've collected
a lot of imagery globally

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so we can look at the high
resolution coastal processes

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anywhere in the globe.

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We can select our own targets.

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We've applied some new
optimization algorithms

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where we can estimate water
depth, water optical properties

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and bottom reflect
simultaneously

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and we've partnered with the
EPA to monitor coastal areas

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of the United States and
we're trying to bring

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that to a broader audience
so that we can present it

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like we do weather where we have
an application where we can look

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at ocean conditions easily
for the general public.

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>> Lori Meggs: What's
next for HICO?

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>> Rick Gould: Well I think
we have at least another year

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of operations on
the Space Station.

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We're hoping to be right next
to a lidar sensor that's going

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to go up next year so
by combining the active

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and the passive signals we'll
get even more information

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from the ocean.