00:00From more than 400 miles above Earth, NASA is tracking some
00:06of the Earth's smallest life forms floating just beneath the
00:09ocean's surface in an effort
00:11to monitor how warming affects ocean health.
00:15The mission involves the space agency's newest Earth-observing
00:19satellite called PACE.
00:21And joining us now to talk about the initiative is one
00:24of the scientists involved in the project.
00:27Oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
00:30and project scientist, Dr. Jeremy Werdel.
00:34Dr. Werdel, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:38It's my pleasure.
00:39Thank you.
00:39First off, just tell us, what does PACE stand for?
00:44And what is the mission of PACE all about?
00:49Okay, so PACE is an acronym for Plankton Aerosol Cloud
00:54and Ocean Ecosystem.
00:55So not super clever, but at the same time, it indicates
00:59that we are an Earth science mission.
01:00And I realize when you think of NASA, you don't always think
01:03of their science, but there's a fleet
01:05of Earth-observing satellites.
01:07And PACE is the latest investment, super advanced
01:11for the combined study of our oceans and our atmosphere.
01:15We make the invisible visible with this series of instruments.
01:18Beautiful.
01:19Now, what is the satellite observing and how does it all work?
01:24So the instruments operate a lot like your eyes do.
01:28They infer color, or they take images of color and convert
01:34that into some metric of biology.
01:37And so in the case of oceans, and I'm an oceanographer,
01:40so it starts there, we look at the color of the ocean
01:44to better understand what is it.
01:47And the invisible, in this case, are phytoplankton.
01:49And doctor, what can you tell us about phytoplankton?
01:54And how it affects our climate?
01:57So the beauty of a mission like this and the study
02:00of phytoplankton is they really are important
02:03to not just our everyday lives,
02:05but our generational multi-year, multi-decadal lives.
02:09Various timescales, if you're thinking super short term,
02:13even if you're not in view of the ocean,
02:16our oceans are incredibly important.
02:18Phytoplankton feed our bellies, they feed our economy,
02:22they create recreation.
02:23Sometimes they're phytoplankton up in a handful
02:26and will close beaches or contaminate drinking water.
02:28So it's really, really important to understand where they are
02:32and what communities are there.
02:34And then when you think longer term, the ocean
02:36and the atmosphere are completely interconnected.
02:38And what happens in the atmosphere can influence
02:41the ocean and vice versa.
02:43And so where phytoplankton come in is they can not only
02:46influence creations of clouds, which can warm and cool
02:50or warm up, reflect light in the atmosphere,
02:52but they also move carbon around.
02:55So their distributions are incredibly important
02:57to really understand all of the aspects of our changing planet.
03:00Talk to us about where you might see NASA taking this in the future.
03:06Oh, that's a great question.
03:08There is a lot to think about in terms of interconnectedness.
03:12So it would be really amazing for the discovery
03:16that PACE will offer for all walks of life
03:19to be hopefully institutionalized to long term monitoring
03:23through multiple missions.
03:25But, you know, NASA would also invest in other ways
03:29of viewing the ocean that complement PACE as well.
03:31This really is fascinating stuff.
03:34Dr. Jeremy Wardell, thank you so much for your time today.
03:37Thank you. Really appreciate the interest.
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