Determination of Bio-optical Provinces in the North Atlantic Ocean: A Collaboration between JGOFS and WOCE

wce水文测量计划（WHP）的最后一系列巡航将于1997年夏季在北大西洋开始。JGOFS与WHP的合作是进行二氧化碳调查、生物光学和颜料调查，以便获得有关上层海洋特性的空间广泛数据集。对于WHP A20段（大致沿55 W从大浅滩到特立尼达），近地表水的生物光学（光谱辐照度、荧光、光束衰减、叶绿素-a）和物理（温度、盐度）特性的数据将在间距不超过100公里的站点收集。这个观测项目的目的是确定北大西洋西部的生物地球化学省是否有一个大的光学基础。对各省的描述依赖于水流、水柱稳定性、温度、与陆地的接近程度等，但只是半定量的。待检验的假设是，这些省份是否存在于大光学意义上，零假设是，除了案例1和案例2水域的区别之外，沿着样带没有大光学差异。由于巡航将发生在夏季，地表温差最小，因此收集的数据将是对另一种假设（生物光学省存在）的更有力的检验。一旦整理和组织，这些数据将通过万维网提供给所有调查人员。如果生物地球化学省可以作为大光学实体存在，就可以更精确地计算卫星图像的初级产出，并有助于根据浮游生物生态对海洋区域进行分类。因此，生物地球化学省是组织研究浮游生物过程的机制基础的一种手段。预计WHP巡航将在新的海洋颜色传感器SeaW iFS发射（现定于1997年2月）之后进行，因此这个观测计划可能有助于为卫星数据提供海洋真相。

*** 9618722 Marra The last series of WOCE Hydrographic Program (WHP) cruises will begin the North Atlantic in summer, 1997. For JGOFS, the collaboration with the WHP has been for a CO2 survey, and for bio-optics and pigments, in order to obtain a spatially extensive data set on upper ocean properties. For the WHP section A20 (roughly along 55 W from the Grand Banks to Trinidad), data on bio-optical (spectral irradiance, fluorescence, beam attenuation, chlorophyll-a) and physical (temperature, salinity) properties in near- surface waters will be collected at a station spacing of no more than 100 km. The objective of this observational program is to determine whether the biogeochemical provinces that have been described for the western North Atlantic have a big-optical basis. The descriptions of the provinces rely on currents, water-column stability, temperature, proximity to land, etc., but are only semi-quantitative. The hypothesis to be tested is whether these provinces exist in a big-optical sense, the null hypothesis being that there are no big-optical differences along the transect beyond the distinction of Case- 1 and Case-2 waters. Since the cruise will occur in summer, with surface temperature differences at a minimum, the data collected will be a stronger test of the alternative hypothesis (that bio- optical provinces exist) than otherwise. Once collated and organized, the data will be made available to all investigators via the World-Wide Web. If biogeochemical provinces can be shown to exist as big-optical entities, it will allow greater precision in the calculation of primary production from satellite imagery, and also prove useful in helping to classify ocean areas with respect to their plankton ecology. Biogeochemical provinces are thus a means or organizing the study of the mechanistic basis of plankton processes. It is expected that the WHP cruises will occur after the launch (now scheduled for February, 1997) of the new ocean color sensor, SeaW iFS, and thus this observational program may assist in providing sea-truth for the satellite data.