What is EXPORTS?

EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) is a large-scale NASA-led field campaign that will provide critical information for quantifying the export and fate of upper ocean net primary production (NPP) using satellite observations and state of the art ocean technologies.

The Oceanic Carbon Cycle

In the upper sunlit ocean (or euphotic zone), the ocean teems with microscopic organisms known as phytoplankton that provide food for zooplankton - tiny oceanic animals.

Some of the phytoplankton, the zooplankton, and their waste products are transported from the surface of the ocean to the deeper, dimly lit "twilight zone", taking the carbon they are made of with them. Some of that carbon will eventually make it to the deeper ocean interior where it will remain for time scales of months to milliennia.

Using State of the Art Technology

EXPORTS scientists will strive to understand how the carbon makes it to the twilight zone and deep ocean interior, and how long it stays there, which is vital to understanding present and future ocean ecosystems and global climate.

Learn more about the science of EXPORTS on our About page.

Learn more about the science of EXPORTS

This short video made by EXPORTS own Colleen Durkin illustrates the biological pump. In its simplest form, the biological pump is the mechanism that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere to deep sea water and sediment. It is the part of the oceanic carbon cycle responsible for the cycling of organic matter formed mainly by phytoplankton during photosynthesis, as well as the cycling of calcium carbonate formed into shells by certain organisms such as plankton and mollusks.

Explore our information page to learn more.

EXPORTS Projects

On Board The Roger Revelle

Promo video

In this episode of Voice of the Sea, we're learning more about EXPORTS — NASA and the National Science Foundations’ epic research project to study the ocean’s carbon cycle, so that information from satellites can make more accurate predictions of global climate change.

We start off on board the Research Vessel Roger Revelle as it, and the Research Vessel Sally Ride, prepare to head to the northeastern Pacific Ocean, with their cargo of scientists and technology. Ivona Cetinić, from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, talks about the value of satellites in understanding the ocean. We tour the wet lab with University of Hawai‘i Oceanographer Brian Popp. We talk with marine biologist Craig Carlson about tiny microbes like bacteria—and their importance to the movement of carbon through the ocean food web. UCSB Postdoctoral researcher, Brandon Stephens, shows us a shipping container used as a laboratory for radioactive work. We learn how scientist Joe Cope sorts, identifies, and measures zooplankton collected from nets towed behind the research ship. Bruce Appelgate from Scripps Institution of Oceanography explains the role of ships in studying the ocean. And, the chief scientist for this cruise, Debbie Steinberg, talks about why NASA is engaging researchers in combining satellite data with ship-based measurements of the ocean.

Click here for the full episode