In order to understand the marine phytoplanktons role in the global marine ecosystem and on biogeochemical fluxes, it is necessary to derive simultaneously global information on the quantitative distribution of major phytoplankton functional groups of the world ocean. We show global biomass distributions from 2008 of diatoms and cyanobacteria analysed with PhytoDOAS, a method of Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) currently specialized for diatoms and cyanobacteria (Bracher et al. 2009) from satellite data of SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography) on ENVISAT. In addition, first results from an extension of the PhytoDOAS method to simultaneous phytoplankton group fitting lead to global biomass distributions of other phytoplantkon types, such as coccolithophores, Phaeocystis sp., and dinoflagellates. These global maps of phytoplankton distribution are validated with collocated pigment water samples analyzed via HPLC and the calculated phytoplankton groups applying the CHEMTAX program (Mackey et al. 1996). The satellite based diatoms and cyanobacteria data sets are used as input data for global ecosystem and biogeochemical models. First applications of these approaches will be presented.