Brazil and Argentina have joined an international effort to provide data and to help prevent an ocean color data gap, which occurred after the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) mission failed in 1986. Scientists had to wait for 10 years before new ocean color sensors (MOS, OCTS and POLDER) were launched in 1996. Remote sensing of ocean color provides important information about oceans based on the sea’s color, as seen from space

 

The new mission is known as the Argentinean-Brazilian Satellite of Environmental Information of the Sea (SABIA-Mar for its name in Spanish and Portuguese). In a recent SABIA-Mar workshop, Agência Espacial Brasileira – AEB (Brazilian Space Agency), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE (National Institute for Space Research), both from Brazil and CONAE Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (National Commission of Space Activities) from Argentina, decided to split the SABIA-Mar mission into two satellites. The first will focus on imaging the global oceans and is expected to launch in 2018. Another satellite will be used for regional studies, and is planned for a 2019 launch.