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Climate experts search for answers in the oceans

11 December 2006

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By absorbing half of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, the oceans have a profound influence on climate. To determine their response to global warming, ESA has backed two projects that provide systematic data on key oceanic variables: the Medspiration project, aimed at charting sea-surface temperatures, and the GlobCOLOUR project, aimed at developing a data set of global ocean colour.

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Plankton bloom off the coast of Norway, acquired on 10 June 2006 by Envisat's MERIS - an instrument optimised to detect ocean colour.

Credits: ESA

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Medspiration daily heat maps providing the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) of the Mediterranean between September 2005 and March 2006.

Credits: ESA