Phytoplankton Carbon

More detail

Plant plankton is the food at the bottom of the chain. High numbers are water rich in it, and low numbers are clear water.

How it differs from chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green pigment inside the plankton; this layer shows the amount of plankton itself. The ratio between the two changes with light, nutrients and species, so a bright patch on one need not be bright on the other.

The model is Copernicus Marine's, the same one behind Chlorophyll Concentration, and RipIQ puts it on the map. The plankton figure itself is never compared with a measurement.

Use it for the broad pattern: where the rich water sits and roughly where its edge runs. Each value covers a square about 15 nautical miles across. It reaches from the surface to about 610 feet, and you pick the depth in Layer Settings. It runs up to 7 days ahead as a forecast. 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 layers. The two maps usually look alike. Chlorophyll (GlobColour), Chlorophyll (OLCI ~600m), Chlorophyll (PACE, same-day) and Chlorophyll (Sentinel-3, same-day) are satellite pictures. Use those when you want what was seen from orbit. Phytoplankton Front Intensity and Phytoplankton 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	mmol/m^3, the amount of plant plankton measured as carbon, at the depth you pick

Source: the Copernicus model.