In order to understand the marine phytoplanktons role in the
global marine ecosystem and on biogeochemical fluxes, it is
necessary to derive simultaneously global information on the
quantitative distribution of major phytoplankton functional
groups of the world ocean. We show global biomass distributions
from 2008 of diatoms and cyanobacteria analysed with PhytoDOAS,
a method of Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS)
currently specialized for diatoms and cyanobacteria (Bracher et
al. 2009) from satellite data of SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging
Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography) on ENVISAT.
In addition, first results from an extension of the PhytoDOAS
method to simultaneous phytoplankton group fitting lead to
global biomass distributions of other phytoplantkon types, such
as coccolithophores, Phaeocystis sp., and dinoflagellates. These
global maps of phytoplankton distribution are validated with
collocated pigment water samples analyzed via HPLC and the
calculated phytoplankton group