January 19, 2017, Thursday - Sip of Science at Aster Cafe
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Aster Cafe (River Room) 125 SE Main Street
January Sip of Science - A New Tool for Monitoring Harmful Algae Concentrations using Multi-Satellite Observations
Toxic freshwater harmful algal blooms (HAB) are a growing global public and ecosystem health concern, including in our own Minnesota freshwater lakes and rivers. Occurrences of HAB on the surface of warm, nutrient-rich freshwater systems are spatially variable and highly transient. The ephemeral and often remote nature of HAB makes timely in situ monitoring difficult and expensive. Satellites provide the possibility of consistent, long-term, global observations that are available freely and publicly, but estimating the extent and timing of HAB using satellites is no easy task. This presentation addresses these problems using a framework that combines available multi-satellite, multi-sensor observations with onsite field measurements. The goal is to retrieve and monitor real-time HAB concentrations in lakes with similar characteristics and without previous field monitoring. Such a tool can be used to better identify and predict the rise of and concentrations of HAB in our waterways.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Abigail Tomasek, Anne Wilkinson, Maria Del Carmen Garcia De La Serrana Lozano, and Zeinab Takbiri are all PhD students at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, studying water resources and civil engineering. Together they put together the above proposal and submitted it to the regional Central States Water Environmental Association (CSWEA)’s design competition in Spring 2016. Upon winning that contest, they presented their work at the annual national WEFTEC 2016 conference in September 2016, again placing first!
A SIP OF SCIENCE bridges the gap between science and culture in a setting that bridges the gap between brain and belly. Food, beer, and learning are on the menu in a happy hour forum that puts science in context through storytelling.
No cover; food and drink available for purchase.
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