Quantitative distribution of major functional phytoplankton types (PFTs) of the world ocean improves the understanding of the role of marine phytoplankton in the global marine ecosystem and biogeochemical cycles. Global biomass distributions from 2002 -2010 of different dominant PFTs (diatoms, cyanobacteria, coccolithophores, dinoflagellates) are derived with PhytoDOAS, a method of Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) currently specialized for deriving chl-a of PFTs from satellite data of SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography) on ENVISAT (details in Bracher et al. 2009, Sadegi et al. 2011). Results of the global maps of PFT distribution are validated with collocated pigment water samples analyzed via HPLC from a global data set compiled from various data bases and own measurements. The use of these global PFT satellite data sets for studying PFT bloom dynamics or evaluating an ecosystem model is presented.