Belle/Fouchon Pass Larval Transport Research
Estuary-Shelf Exchanges
P.I.s Rick Shaw, Nan Walker, and Chunyan Li
Funding provided by NOAA's NMFS and NASA through the LA Board of Regents
Real-time acquisitions of MODIS and OCM imagery provide frequent surveillance of water masses and frontal features to enhance our interpretation and understanding of
physical processes, which may control larval transport of fish and shrimp between the continental shelf spawning grounds and estuarine nursery areas. These satellite
measurements have spatial resolutions of approximately 250m and are updated daily on this web page. A calendar archive of MODIS and OCM image products of our study
region is provided below. For broader aerial views of the Louisiana coastal region click here. For current
views of meteorological imagery click here .
Physical and biological sampling are performed in BellePass and just offshore, and in Pass Fouchon. Continuous measurements of water column currents, water level
gradients between estuary and shelf, temperature, conductivity and salinity are obtained using RDI and YSI instruments. Zoo-/ichthyoplankton sampling is performed
primarily from the dock at the LUMCON's Fouchon camp, where there is also an on-site weather station.
Daily Seawinds data from the QuikScat scatterometer data is obtained from the Remote Sensing Systems. Wind data is dowloaded in binary, converted and overlayed with the OCM and MODIS imagery.
Latest OCM True Color Image Latest MODIS True Color Image
 
Latest OCM Chla Image Latest OCM chlor_a Image
 
Latest Quikscat Image for LA coast Latest Quikscat Image for Fouchon
 
| 
