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Meet our new Ocean Observatory Technician

We would like to welcome Jo Goodman to the CMOP team. She joins us from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she recently recieved a Master's degree in Marine Science.

Jo has been appointed Ocean Observatory Technician with the field team in Astoria. She will assist in deploying and maintaining the SATURN observation network in the Columbia River estuary, plume and shelf.
 

ESP Revealed

This is Clair, our new Environmental Sample Processor (ESP). She is a field-deployable system – developed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and commercialized by Spyglass – that will be used to collect water samples from the Columbia River estuary, concentrate microorganisms or other particles of interest, analyze them using molecular techniques, and transmit the results. We are working on a story about how CMOP plans to use modeling to decide when the ESP should take samples.

ESP
In the meantime, here is a photo of Spyglass Chief Information Architect, Paul Janecek and CMOP scientists, Mariya Smit, Charles Seaton, and Vena Hayes going over the functionality of the ESP.

Researchers at Ocean Sciences Meeting

OSM 2012CMOP researchers are presenting this week at the 2012 Ocean Sciences Meeting, an international gathering of science experts. This is a major venue for CMOP to exchange scientific knowledge with more than 4,000 attendees.
 

Science Under Wraps

Underwraps
You may need ESP to know what is under the pink plastic covering.

What I do know is that CMOP is one of only a few select research labs in the world that has this device and it will advance our research capabilities in molecular biological analyses.

CMOP Products Listed on NANOOS

NANOOSThree CMOP products have been recently added to the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS) products page.

Tsunami App

AppA mobile version of "NANOOS Tsunami Evacuation Zones" for Android - a project developed by Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS) with support from CMOP - has been released and available at the Android market.

Tale of a Bioswale

NAYA students plant bioswale

I spent the day with students from the Native American Youth Association’s (NAYA) Early College Academy as they installed a bioswale on the school grounds. Bioswales are landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff water. This is part of their environmental science class project for the year that is co-sponsored by CMOP.

The Plan

Red Water -The Movie

See red water blooms for yourself. Watch scientists Lydie Herfort and Victoria Campbell study red water blooms in the Columbia River estuary.

The Hunt for Red Water

Magnified image of Myrionecta rubra

Look at all those microscopic red cells. OK. I know what you are thinking. The image is black and white. But let me tell you, those cells aren't and when they are in full bloom they turn the Columbia river estuary red. They are called Myrionecta rubra and - ready for some science jargon - are a neritic, planktonic ciliate. Late in the summer they create impressive non-toxic, red blooms. CMOP is trying to learn if they could be used as an early warning signal for changes in the environment.

Click here to learn more about the research.

Alder in the Ocean

Sitka mooring deployed

This is the final day of the research campaign. The scientific team and ships crew successfully deployed the NANOOS/CMOP NH10 buoy called Alder. It is equipped with sensors that read wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and barometric pressure above the water line. Below the water line is a downward looking Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and several sensors that read temperature, conductivity, pressure, and dissolved oxygen at various depths.

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