There are currently 5 different Ocean Color Backscatter products posted on this website from MODIS Aqua data. These products are produced using a backscatter algorithm developed by Dr. Robert Arnone of the Naval Research Lab at Stennis Space Center. The data is processed using the Naval Reasearch Lab's Automated Processing System (APS).

The US coastline (drawn in black) is taken from the NOAA Coastline Extractor database (World Vector Shoreline 1:250,000). Bathymetry (also drawn in black) is obtained from the Nationa Geophysical Data Center's US Coastal Relief Model and units are in meters.

All time stamps are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which is 4 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time from March to November and 5 hours ahead the rest of the year (daylight savings time is not observed in England).