SPACE-BORN RADIOMETERS USED TO ESTIMATE NEAR-SURFACE PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITY PROPERTIES MEASURE LIGHT REFLECTED FROM THE OCEAN IN THE VISIBLE SPECTRUM. THE DEPTH OF PENETRATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN THIS FREQUENCY RANGE IS A FUNCTION OF THE OPACITY OF THE OCEAN S SURFACE RANGING FROM A FEW TENS OF CENTIMETERS IN OPTICALLY-DENSE WATER TO MANY TENS OF METERS IN CLEAR WATER. THE PHYSICAL VARIABILITY OF THIS NEAR-SURFACE STRATA IS PRIMARILY WIND-DRIVEN AND IS NEARLY ALWAYS ENTIRELY CONSTRAINED TO THE SO CALLED SURFACE MIXED LAYER. YET THE SYSTEMATIC AND PERSISTENT INFLUENCE OF GEOSTROPHIC MOTIONS SUCH AS EDDIES AND MEANDERS WHICH DOMINATE VARIABILITY BELOW THE MIXED LAYER CAN BE OBSERVED IN OCEAN COLOR OBSERVATIONS (E.G. CHELTON ET AL. 2011; GAUBE ET AL. 2013 2014; SIEGEL ET AL. 2007 2011) SUGGESTING THAT THE NEAR-SURFACE WIND-DRIVEN SLAB" IS PERMEABLE ALLOWING FLUXES OF BIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT QUANTITIES TO OCCUR IN CONJUNCTION WITH MESOSCALE MODULATIONS OF THE OCEANS INTERIOR. THE INTERACTION OF THE WIND-DRIVEN OCEANS SURFACE WITH ITS GEOSTROPHICALLYDOMINATED INTERIOR HAS BEEN A TOPIC OF MUCH INTEREST IN THE FIELD OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY (GILL 1982; PEDLOSKY 1987). MULTIPLE DYNAMICALLY-CONSISTENT ANALYTICAL MODELS EXIST (E.G. EARLY 2012) THAT CAN BE USED TO INFORM THE INTERPRETATION OF OCEAN COLOR DATA. I PROPOSE TO EXAMINE THE INTERACTION OF THE NEAR-SURFACE WIND-DRIVEN PERMEABLE SLAB WITH THE GEOSTOROPHICALLY-DOMINATED INTERIOR OCEAN BY ANALYZING NEAR-SURFACE OCEAN COLOR OBSERVATIONS FROM SATELLITES (SEAWIFS MODIS AND VIIRS) AND AIR-BORNE SENSORS (GCAS AND HSRL) IN CONJUNCTION WITH IN SITU PROFILES OF THESE OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND STRATIFICATION IN ORDER TO DEVELOP A MECHANISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE INTERACTION OF THE PERMEABLE SLAB WITH THE OCEAN INTERIOR. I WILL APPLY EXISTING ANALYTICAL MODELS IN CONJUNCTION WITH OBSERVATIONS TO SIMULATE THE TRANSFER OF NUTRIENTS INTO THE NEAR-SURFACE OCEAN AS WELL AS THE LOSS OF PHYTOPLANKTON TO THE OCEAN INTERIOR ALLOWING FOR THE FIRST TIME THE PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS INTERACTION TO BE UNDERSTOOD.