Jim Gower

Research Scientist

Current research and/or projects

I work on application of satellite observations in ocean and coastal waters, especially using water colour to detect and track phytoplankton

Professional activities / interests

Professor at:

University of Victoria

Education and awards

Natural Sciences PhD, Cambridge (UK), 1966

Key publications

Gower, J.F.R. 1996. Intercalibration of wave and wind data from TOPEX/Poseidon and moored buoys off the west coast of Canada. J. Geophys. Res. 101:3817-3829.
Gower, J.F.R. 1997. Detection of bright plankton blooms on the west coast of North America and implications for Korea. Ocean Research (KORDI, Korea). 19:193-208.
Thomson, R.E. and J.F.R. Gower. 1998. A basin-scale oceanic instability event in the Gulf of Alaska. J. Geophys. Res. 103:3033-3040.
Boyd, P., C.S. Wong, J. Merrill, F. Whitney, J. Snow, P.J. Harrison and J.F.R. Gower. 1998. Atmospheric iron supply and enhanced vertical carbon flux in the NE Pacific: is there a connection. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 12:429-441.
Gower, J.F.R. 1999. Study of fluorescence-based chlorophyll a concentration algorithms for case 1 and case 2 waters. ESA Contract report 12295/97/Nl/RE.
Gower, J.F.R., R. Doerffer and G.A. Borstad. 1999. Interpretation of the 685 nm peak in water-leaving radiance spectra in terms of fluorescence, absorption and scattering, and its observation by MERIS. Int. J. Remote Sensing. 9:1771-1786.
Gower, J. and G. Borstad. 2000. On the potential of MODIS and MERIS for imaging chlorophyll fluorescence from space. Presented at the Venice 2000. Oceanography from Space conference. Oct 13-19, Venice Italy
Gower, J. 2002. Temperature, wind and wave climatologies and trends from marine meteorological buoys in the NE Pacific. Journal of Climate. 15(24):3709-3718
Crawford, W.R., J.Y. Cherniawsky, M.G.G. Foreman and J.F.R. Gower. 2002. Formation of the Haida-1998 Oceanic Eddy off the West Coast of Canada. J. Geophys. Res. 107(C3):10.1029/2001JC000876.
Sathyendranath, S., T. Platt, B. Irwin, E. Horne, G.A. Borstad, V. Stuart, L. Payzant, H. Maas, P. Kepkay, W.K.W. Li, J. Spry and J.F.R. Gower. 2003. Multispectral remote sensing study of coastal waters off Vancouver Island. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 25(5):893-919.
Robinson, C.L.K., J. Gower and G. Borstad. 2004. Twenty years of satellite observations describing phytoplankton blooms in seas adjacent to Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, Canada. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 30(1):36-43.
Gower, J., L. Brown and G. Borstad. 2004. Observation of chlorophyll fluorescence in west coast waters of Canada using the MODIS satellite sensor. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 30(1):17-25.
Gower, J. 2004. SeaWiFS global composite images show significant features of Canadian waters for 1997-2001. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 30(1):26-35.
Bukata, R.P., J.H. Jerome, G. Borstad, L. Brown and J.Gower. 2004. Mitigating the impact of trans-spectral processes on multivariate retrieval of water quality parameters from case 2 waters. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 30(1):8-16.
Boyd, P.W., C. Law, Y. Nojiri, C.S. Wong, A. Tsuda, M. Levasseur, S. Takeda, G. Jackson, J. Needoba, R. Strzepek, J. Gower, R.M. McKay, M.D. Arychuk, J. Barwell-Clarke, W.R. Crawford, D.W. Crawford, M. Hale, P.J. Harrison, K. Johnson, H. Kiyosawa, I. Kudo, A. Marchetti, W. Miller, J. Nishioka, T. Pedersen, R. Rivkin, M. Robert, H. Saito, N. Sherry, T. Soutar, N.E. Sutherland, C. Trick, F.A. Whitney and J.-E. Tremblay. 2004. Evolution, decline and fate of an iron-induced subarctic. Nature. 2437:1-4.
Bergeron, M., A. Abuelgasim, J. Gower, K. Staenz, G. Borstad and A. Holinger. 2004. Canadian hyperspectral program potential for aquatic remote-sensing. Backscatter. 15(1):27-32.
Gower, J., S. King, G. Borstad and L. Brown. 2005. Detection of intense plankton blooms using the 709nm band of the MERIS imaging spectrometer. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 26(9):2005-2012.
Gower, J. 2005a. Jason 1 detects the 26 December 2004 tsunami. American Geophysical Union. 86:37-38.
Gower, J. and F. González. 2006. U.S. Warning System Detected the Sumatra Tsunami. Eos Trans. AGU. 87(10):105:108.
J. Gower. 2007. The 26 December 2004 tsunami measured by satellite altimetry. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 28(13): 2897 - 2913. DOI: 10.1080/01431160601094484.