Environmental Monitoring Commons^™

A First Look At Sublimation Rates In Toss Island Region, Antarctica, Rebecca Baiman, Scott Landolt

STAR Program Research Presentations

70% of Earth’s fresh water is held in Antarctica ice sheet. If the sheet melts, it has the potential to raise global sea levels by 190 feet (Klekociuk and Wiennecke, 2016). As the climate changes, it is imperative that to understand precipitation systems of Antarctica in order to measure and predict weather around the world. One aspect of precipitation events that we do not understand fully in Antarctica is sublimation. Data was collected from four Ott Pluvio Precipitation Gauges with Belfort Double Alter Shields placed in and around the Ross Ice Shelf from November of 2017 to present. An R …

Visualization Of Geospatial Data As An Analytical And Educational Tool, Richard A. Vu

STAR Program Research Presentations

World Wind is an open-source API developed for Java, Android, and browsers that is designed to visualize and interact with geospatial data. The Web World Wind client is composed of four major components: the HTML template, the globe, geospatial features, and application features. The template was implemented using Bootstrap and hosts the globe provided by World Wind. This globe draws its data from multiple imagery sources, including the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service and Web Map Tile Service. This enables the application to perform and visualize complex calculations with multiple types of data such as weather and terrain. …

Using The Nasa Worldwind Agrosphere Web App As A Climate Change Modeling Tool In The Classroom, Nicholas Rubel, Patrick Hogan, Stacey Chen, Endia Irazarry, Atreya Iyer, John Nguyen, Mingda Tang

STAR Program Research Presentations

Climate change is a clear and imminent threat to the world today. While there are Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for teaching climate change in the classroom, students may have a difficult time understanding the seriousness of the issue. One of the standards in the NGSS is for students to develop their own explanation of climate change and its impact. That’s where AgroSphere comes in. AgroSphere is a web-based app that utilizes NASA open-source software WorldWind. WorldWind allows developers to create their own Java, Android, or web-based apps that can display data on the globe. AgroSphere displays historical weather (climate) …

Effects Of Habitat Restoration On Soil Retention On Santa Rosa Island, Michael Perez, Kathryn Mceachern, Ken Niessen

STAR Program Research Presentations

Ranching began on Santa Rosa Island in the 1840’s, consequently introducing nonnative megafauna that put novel selective grazing pressures on endemic plant species. Their movement patterns also altered substrate integrity as the land became denuded of any stabilizing vegetation. Dense groves of island oak (Q. tomentella) are known to aid in sediment deposition and retention. The groves also function to collect water during periods of intense fog common to the island. This experiment sought to determine whether sediment is being lost or deposited on a ridge in the middle of the island containing a grove of Q. tomentella …

Analyzing Accuracy Of The Lufft Ws600 In Remotely Measuring Precipitation Events, Justin Gay

STAR Program Research Presentations

The goal of this project was to analyze the accuracy of the Lufft WS600 Weather Sensor in measuring the rate of both liquid and solid precipitation. Measurement accuracy, especially in remote locations, can be difficult to obtain and quantify. Wind, blowing debris, and atmospheric particles can all have the capacity to interfere with instruments that are not being continuously compared to manual observations. Access to quality precipitation data sets are important for both hydrologic and weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and understanding the role of water cycling through ecosystems. Commercially, weather sensors are heavily relied upon by the Federal Aviation Administration …

The Effect Of Drought On Stomatal Conductance In The Biosphere 2 Rainforest, Justin Gay, Joost Van Haren

STAR Program Research Presentations

Drought is a major climate change concern for the Earth’s rainforests; however little is currently known about how these forests and individual plants will respond to water stress. At the individual level, the ability of plants to regulate their stomatal conductance is an important preservation mechanism that helps to cool leaves, regulate water loss, and uptake carbon dioxide. At the ecosystem level, transpiration in rain forests is a major contributor to the feedback loop that returns moisture to the atmosphere for continued rains. Nearly 60% of atmospheric moisture in the Amazon rain forests has been traced back to origins of …

Evaluation Of Anthropogenic Marine Debris And Sargassum Fluitans And Its Potential Impact On Sea Turtle Hatchlings At Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, Christina Macmillan

STAR Program Research Presentations

Anthropogenic debris, particularly plastic, has become a significant threat for marine species with the increased use of plastics over the years. Marine birds and sea turtles, mostly green, loggerhead and leatherback turtles, are especially vulnerable to mistaking plastic debris for food and ingesting it. There has been a rise in the incidence of turtles having plastic fragments in their GI tracts; even small amounts of plastic may have major long-term health and reproductive effects. On the nesting beaches, both adults and hatchlings may become entangled in debris or have trouble navigating around beach debris during their crawl to the sea. …

Laboratory Evaluation Of Black Carbon Deposition Onto Snow And Transport Via Snowmelt, Larry D. Hermanson, Joshua P. Schwarz

STAR Program Research Presentations

Black carbon (BC) is an aerosol material produced by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. BC has been shown to be the second most important anthropogenic climate warming agent after carbon dioxide due to its ability to absorb solar radiation, influence cloud behavior, and accelerate snow melt. BC in otherwise clean snow can significantly reduce its reflectivity. In order to learn about the significance of BC contamination in snow, we explored the deposition of BC onto snow and the transport of BC in snow during snowmelt. A Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2), was used to measure the concentration and …

Using Remote Sensing Data To Predict The Spread Of Mosquito Borne Disease, Mary Ellen O'Donnell, Erika Podest

STAR Program Research Presentations

There is interest in how environmental variables derived from satellite data such as temperature, vegetation cover, and precipitation correlate to vector borne disease occurrence such as malaria and dengue fever. This study will be carried out using a decision tree based open source software called Random Forests to find correlations between the remote sensing variables and mosquito abundance. Software will be written in C# to take large amounts of data from the NASA satellite database and automatically format it for the Random Forest Software input. Correlations found, using Random Forests, between disease incidence and the variables can be used as …

The Power Plant Mapping Student Project, Kelsey Tayne, Tom Oda

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Power Plant Mapping Student Project: Bringing Citizen Science to Schools

Kelsey Tayne¹, Tom Oda²

¹STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR) Fellow, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132

²NOAA ESRL, Global Monitoring Division, Boulder, CO 80303

Emissions inventory (EI) is a conventional tool to monitor changes in anthropogenic emissions and can visually show geographical patterns of emission changes. The EI community is aware of significant errors in the geographical locations of point sources, including power plants. The Power Plant Mapping Student Project (PPMSP) is a platform designed for students in 4^th through 12 …

Spectroscopic Study Of Uranium (Vi) Reduction By Plant Biomass, Margaret C. Murphy, John Bargar, Noémie Janot

STAR Program Research Presentations

Uranium is a common and problematic groundwater contaminant at Department of Energy legacy sites. At the former uranium ore processing plant at Rifle, Colorado, sediments rich in decayed plant biomass contain large concentrations of uranium that are slowly being released back to the aquifer. To simulate the reaction that occurs in organic rich sediments of the Rifle aquifer, biomass was incubated in U (VI) bearing groundwater. Carbon X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was then used to measure if uranium was bound to the biomass. When uranium binds to biomass the peaks in the C XAS spectra will change shape. Uranium L …

Juxtaposing Nasa’S Aeronet Aod With Carb Pm Data Over The San Joaquin Valley To Facilitate Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (Misr) Pm Pollution Research, John Kanemoto

STAR Program Research Presentations

Airborne particulate matter (PM) has been shown to increase the risk for asthma, chronic bronchitis, cardiopulmonary complications, and respiratory cell membrane damage/infection/leakage. PM levels are currently analyzed from two perspectives: stationary land-based monitoring (LBM) sites and total Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) atmospheric column measurements. Both perspectives often leave miles of space between measuring locations and will have a continually increasing cost from introducing/maintaining sites. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) satellite team hopes to begin investigating/archiving PM levels comprehensively via inputting MISR AOD measurements into a function/model which predicts the amount of ground level PM.

In the future, multivariable spatial correlations …

The Abundance And Distribution Of Gelatinous Zooplankton In The San Francisco Estuary, Amalia Borson, Lindsay Sullivan, Wim Kimmerer

STAR Program Research Presentations

Until recently, gelatinous zooplankton were not considered important components of the San Francisco Estuary (SFE) foodweb. However, anecdotal evidence, ongoing research, and a few published reports and papers suggest an increase in their abundance over the last 10 to 20 years. Of particular interests are three species of introduced hydromedusae (Blackfordia virginica, Maeotias marginata, and Moerisia lyonsi). All three inhabit the fresh to brackish regions of the estuary, including Suisun Bay, the channels of Suisun Marsh, and the western Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and are seasonally abundant throughout late summer and fall. As a result, they overlap …

Characterization Of Uranium Species In Sediments Under Iron And Sulfate Reducing Conditions Using Synchrotron-Based Techniques, Don Q. Pham, John Bargar

STAR Program Research Presentations

Uranium is one of the most common and problematic contaminants at legacy Department of Energy sites. Groundwater contamination is particularly problematic because it occurs at depth, is present in large volumes, and cannot be easily accessed for clean-up. One method of remediation being investigated is the bioreduction of soluble U(VI) to insoluble U(IV) complexes through the in-situ stimulation of metal-reducing bacteria. Understanding the structure of these uranium complexes can help us determine their fate and stability in groundwater and map out the biological process of uranium reduction by metal-reducing bacteria. In this study, we used the synchrotron-based techniques, X-ray absorption …

Effects Of Mechanical Ventilation Rates On Indoor Formaldehyde Levels, Thuy Nguyen, Henry Willem

STAR Program Research Presentations

Airtight construction of energy efficient homes increasingly limits the indoor and outdoor air exchange. Consequently, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Formaldehyde can accumulate to toxic levels. Formaldehyde is an eye and respiratory irritant suspected as one of the inducing agents of asthma. Exposure to Formaldehyde has been linked to nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia. This study evaluated the effects of increasing ventilation rates through Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) in a new home. The study objective is to determine the effects of increasing ventilation rates on the concentrations of Formaldehyde and the associated emission rates. The results indicate that increasing ventilation rates …