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Satellites have provided high-resolution ( < 100 m) water color (i.e., remote sensing reflectance) and thermal emission imagery of aquatic environments since the early 1980s; however, global operational water quality products based on these data are not readily available (e.g., temperature, chlorophyll- a , turbidity, and suspended particle matter). Currently, because of the postprocessing required, only users with expressive experience can exploit these data, limiting their utility. Here, we provide paths (recipes) for the nonspecialist to access and derive water quality products, along with examples of applications, from sensors on board Landsat-5, Landsat-7, Landsat-8, Landsat-9, Sentinel-2A, and Sentinel-2B. We emphasize that the only assured metric for success in product derivation and the assigning of uncertainties to them is via validation with in situ data. We hope that this contribution will motivate nonspecialists to use publicly available high-resolution satellite data to study new processes and monitor a variety of novel environments that have received little attention to date. 

Abstract Understanding the interplay of ocean physics and biology at the submesoscale and below (<30 km) is an ongoing challenge in oceanography. While poorly constrained, these scales may be of critical importance for understanding how changing ocean dynamics will impact marine ecosystems. Fronts in the ocean, regions where two disparate water masses meet and isopycnals become tilted toward vertical, are considered hotspots for biophysical interaction, but there is limited observational evidence at the appropriate scales to assess their importance. Fronts around western boundary currents like the Gulf Stream are of particular interest as these dynamic physical regions are thought to influence both productivity and composition of primary producers; however, how exactly this plays out is not well known. Using satellite data and 2 years of in situ observations across the Gulf Stream front near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, we investigate how submesoscale frontal dynamics could affect biological communities and generate hotspots of productivity and export. We assess the seasonality and phenology of the region, generalize the kilometer‐scale structure of the front, and analyze 69 transects to assess two physical processes of potential biogeochemical importance: cold shelf filament subduction and high salinity Sargasso Sea obduction. We link these processes observationally to meanders in the Gulf Stream and discuss how cold filament subduction could be exporting carbon and how obduction of high salinity water from depth is connected with high chlorophyll‐a. Finally, we report on phytoplankton community composition in each of these features and integrate these observations into our understanding of frontal submesoscale dynamics.