Coastal zone color scanner retrospective

The following special section of the Journal of Geophysical Research is dedicated to a retrospective of scientific studies using the coastal zone color scanner (CZCS) instrument. The CZCS was launched in late 1978 aboard the Nimbus 7 satellite as a “proof‐of‐concept” instrument to demonstrate the feasibility of using satellite platforms to monitor the distribution of oceanic phytoplankton in the world's oceans. It provided data until the middle of 1986. Phytoplankton primary production contributes approximately one half of the global biospheric fixation of organic matter by photosynthesis, thereby forming the base of the oceanic food web and providing a major sink for atmospheric CO 2 .