The loop was closed. The horizontal and vertical profiles of bio-optical parameters confirmed the satellite observations. Moreover, for the first time, near real-time satellite analyses were used to guide an oceanographic campaign. These results were published by GREPMA in 1987 in a starting journal (see abstract in Marine Nature). Previously, nobody realised that a plankton type could have such strong optical effects.
Fifteen years after, thanks to the paper by P.M. Holligan, M. Viollier, D.S Harbour, P. Camus, M. Champagne Philippe (Nature, 1983), the remote sensing of coccolithophores is now a common parameter of the US Seawifs and MODIS products. In addition, the study of Emiliania huxleyi and other coccolithophores has become an important part of biological oceanography due to their role in global biogeochemical cycles.
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