My main area of research involves the use of orbiting satellites (such as NASA's SeaStar and NOAA's POES) to investigate the condition of coastal waters. Of particular interest to me is the study of coastal ocean chlorophyll and sea surface temperatures.
Why is the study of oceanic chlorophyll important? Read this guide.
An Adobe PDF copy of a research poster Jessica Hausman, an undergraduate researcher who graduated in 2001, is available here. Jessica's area of study was the study of chlorophyll concentrations off the Grand Strand coast, and their link to water runoff events from local rivers. For this study, Jessica acquired three years of satellite imagery from NASA and processed it using SeaDAS software on our department's Linux workstation.
A more detailed study, using a six year time-series of data to look at episodic runoff events and seasonal stratification and their effect of the productivity of the South Atlantic Bight, is ongoing. A poster presented at the 2003 SECOS meeting is available here. See also the animations below....
A Map of the study area.
Chlorophyll concentrations immediately after Hurricane Floyd. Increased nutrient input into the coastal waters from river runoff causes phytoplankton blooms:
Monthly average chlorophyll concentrations in the South Atlantic Bight.
Shockwave animations of the temporal and spatial modes of EOF Analysis of a six-year series of SeaWiFS chlorophyll images from the South Atlantic Bight:
- Temporal Mode 1
- Temporal Mode 2
- Temporal Mode 3
- Temporal Mode 4
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- Spatial Mode 1
Animations of the first two temporal modes with the inner shelf masked:
- Temporal Mode 1
- Temporal Mode 2
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- Spatial Mode 1
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Another of my areas of interest in satellite remote sensing is that of coastal land-use classification. Landsat data are used in these studies. Students James Patanio and Renee Howard worked on a study recently, looking at how the land use patterns in the Grand Strand region have changed over the past 15 years. Their poster, presented at the 2003 SESAPS meeting in Wilmington, is available here.
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The Grand Strand Region, showing Winyah bay to the South, where the Pee Dee and Waccamaw rivers meet the ocean. The coast is densely populated from Pawley's Island north to Cherry Grove. |
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Land-use classfications along the Grand Strand.
Light Green = trees
Dark Green = wetlands
Brown = saltmarshes
Black = urban
Yellow = open space
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A mosaic of four separate 2002 Landsat images of the SC Coast, from Charleston to North Carolina. The water has been smoothed for presentation. |
In Spring of 2003, severe flooding hit the communities along the Santee River. This Landsat image was classified to show the extent of the flooding.
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