Virtual Centre for Ocean Satellite Salinity

Dr. Jim Gower

Name: Dr. Jim Gower

Email: GowerJ@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Field of Study: Satellite Oceanography

I plan and supervise the programme of the remote sensing facility at the Institute of Ocean Sciences. We receive daily NOAA AVHRR (visible and infrared) and SeaWiFS (water colour) images using two Quorum HRPT tracking antenna systems. We archive raw data and rectified image products from three NOAA and up to two SeaWiFS passes daily. Archive is on CDROM. From May to October we use the data in a search for bright blooms.

I have also worked with CZCS, TM, altimetry and SAR products. Present emphasis is on SeaWiFS (launched August 1997), ESA's MERIS instrument on Envisat, and the Canada/US Radarsat (launched November 4 1995).

I am also responsible for the new optical sensors on west coast meteorological buoys and the BC ferry "Spirit of Vancouver Island." These instruments are designed to give time series of plankton blooms for comparison with satellite images.

Nell Anderson, a local artist, has taken some liberties with the instruments on the Saanich Inlet buoy, but records the first visit to the new buoy, made on a paddled wind surfer board. The buoy has a light and we have added an acoustic sensor, not quite as shown. Our measurements are a definite link to fisheries, hence the fish and the rod. I don't remember the rat, but the buoy floats there still, so perhaps it shows the buoy is non-sinking. I can't explain the chicken, but I'm told Nell likes to include them in her pictures.

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