NASA to Hold Briefing on Ocean Ecology, Carbon Cycle Field Campaign

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Jul 14, 2014, 11:22 ET

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 17, to discuss new fieldwork using coordinated ship and aircraft observations aimed at advancing the technology needed to measure microscopic plankton in the ocean from space.

The new technologies and methods tested during NASA's Ship-Aircraft Bio-Optical Research (SABOR) experiment off the United States' Atlantic coast will be a critical tool in finding out how and why plankton are changing around the planet and where the carbon associated with plankton goes. Plankton play an important part of the climate system and deliver oxygen to the atmosphere, absorb carbon dioxide, and form the base of the marine food chain.

The briefing will be held at the University of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay campus, Narragansett, Rhode Island. Media may attend in person or by teleconference.

The briefing participants are:
-- Paula Bontempi, ocean biology and biogeochemistry program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Michael Behrenfeld, ocean plant ecologist, Oregon State University, Corvallis
-- Chris Hostetler, atmospheric scientist, NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
-- Alex Gilerson, ocean imager, City College of New York
-- Jacek Chowdhary, research scientist, Columbia University, New York
-- Ivona Cetinic, ocean ecologist, University of Maine, Walpole

To register for the briefing or request dial-in information, contact Leslie McCarthy at [email protected] no later than noon Thursday. Questions can also be submitted on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Graphics supporting the briefing will be posted at the start of the teleconference online at :

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO

SOURCE NASA