Coastal Zone Color Scanner
![Ocean color around Tasmania (false color). Red and orange colors indicate high levels of phytoplankton.](/Images/godic/202501/05/Tasmania_27nov815843.png")
![The Global Biosphere - a composite of all 60,000 CZCS images plus three years of land vegetation data collected by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer instrument.](/Images/godic/202501/05/Biosphere_CZCS_NDVI5843.jpg")
![An artist's rendering of the Nimbus satellites' design](/Images/godic/202501/05/Nimbus_rendering5843.jpg")
The Coastal Zone Color Scanner (or CZCS) was a multi-channel scanning radiometer aboard the Nimbus 7 satellite, predominately designed for water remote sensing. Nimbus 7 was launched 24 October 1978, and CZCS became operational on 2 November 1978. It was only designed to operate for one year (as a proof-of-concept), but in fact remained in service until 22 June 1986. Its operation on board the Nimbus 7 was limited to alternate days as it shared its power with the passive microwave Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer.