Application of the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) Water Column Component (WC) to data derived by the Naval Research Lab (NRL) Automated Processing System (APS) modeling of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Imagery from the Aqua Earth Orbiting Satel

Satellite-derived data for sea surface temperature, salinity, chlorophyll; euphotic depth; and modeled bottom to surface temperature differences were evaluated to assess the utility of these products as proxies for in situ measurements. The data were used to classify surface waters in three regions of the Gulf of Mexico using subcomponents and modifiers from the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) Water Column Component (WC) to determine if CMECS categories could be affectively used to categorize in situ data into meaningful management units. The Naval Research Laboratory at the Stennis Space Center (NRL/SSC) processed MODIS-Aqua satellite imagery covering the Gulf of Mexico from January 2005 to December 2009. Daily, level-1B image files from the NASA LAADS Web were processed through the NRL/SSC Automated Processing System (APS). Sea surface temperature and salinity were classified into CMECS WC temperature and salinity subcomponent categories, respectively.Three modifiers from the WC were also used for the pelagic classification: water column stability, productivity, and photic quality. Modeled bottom to surface temperature differences were used to assign classification for water column stability, surface chlorophyll was used to determine productivity, and euphotic depth was used to indicate the photic quality. Maps showing the CMECS Water Column Component classes for chlorophyll concentration, euphotic depth, sea surface salinity, sea surface temperature (HDF4), and bottom-to-surface temperatures (netCDF) were produced from the APS output images.