Chlorophyll Concentration
A computer model's estimate of how much plankton is in the water. A simulation rather than a satellite picture, so it never has cloud holes and will not match the satellite chlorophyll layers.
Updates daily
More detail
This layer shows chlorophyll, the green pigment in plankton. On the default colors, dark purple and blue are clear water, and green to yellow is rich water.
The model is Copernicus Marine's, and RipIQ puts it on the map. Real satellite chlorophyll is fed in only once a week, broadly smoothed.
Use it for the big picture: where the rich water sits and roughly where it meets blue water. Each value covers a square about 15 nautical miles across.
It reaches from the surface down to about 610 feet, and you pick the depth in Layer Settings. It runs up to 7 days ahead as a forecast.
Its limits. The provider says the model draws clear water a little greener and big blooms weaker than they are. The last couple of weeks are re-run daily, so a recent value can change. The layer covers the Gulf of America, the East Coast and Baja.
How it relates to the other chlorophyll layers. Chlorophyll (GlobColour), Chlorophyll (OLCI ~600m), Chlorophyll (PACE, same-day) and Chlorophyll (Sentinel-3, same-day) are satellite pictures, and sharper. Use the satellite layers to find where a color edge sits. Use this layer when cloud has hidden the water for days, or to look below the surface or ahead. This layer runs 0.2 to 0.4 by default and the satellite layers run 0.03 to 1.0, so a color here is not the same value there. Phytoplankton Carbon comes from the same model and shows the plankton itself, not its pigment. Chlorophyll Front Intensity and Chlorophyll Front Edges are worked out from this layer and show only its edges.
The numbers
| How often it updates | Once a day, one frame per day |
| How fresh it usually is | Same day the provider publishes it |
| How detailed it is | About 15 nautical miles per grid cell; from the surface to about 610 feet |
| Where it covers | Gulf of America, East Coast and Baja. Outside the regions the map shows the chart alone; the layers stop at the region's edge. |
| How far back you can look | 8 days back |
| How far forward you can look | Up to 7 days ahead, as a forecast |
| Observed or modeled | Modeled |
| What you see on screen | mg/m^3, the amount of chlorophyll in the water. The default color range is 0.2 to 0.4 |
| Known bias | Clear water is drawn greener than it is; blooms are drawn weaker than they are |
Source: the Copernicus model.