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THE ENSO Phase III Community

Welcome to Phase III of the ENSO Student Research Campaign: "Water in Our Environment". You can share ideas, upload documents and post questions.

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The group that was involved in the Global Water Quality Collaboration (GWQCG) will now be conducting their study on the GENESIS thread under the ENSO III Project. Please follow the link if you are interested in joining, participating or interested in following their work.

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NASA Demonstrates Airborne Water Quality Sensor

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Brian Campbell, modified 7 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 18 Join Date: 11/20/12 Recent Posts
One of our Guiding Investigative Questions for Phase III of the the ESNO Campaign is: "What is the quality of water in our environment?"

In early 2016, NASA introduced an airborne sensor to measure air quality. This sensor is onboard a twin otter aircraft. Using the NASA JPL-developed Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer (PRISM), researchers analyzed turbidity (how cloudy the water is), chlorophyll-a (an indicator of phytoplankton in the water), dissolved organic carbon (a source of undesired disinfection by-products produced during the treatment of drinking water), and sediments suspended in the water. Dissolved organic carbon is also a useful indicator of the amount of dissolved methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that tends to accumulate in fish and other wildlife in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. The experiment demonstrated how a single image from PRISM can instantaneously provide a detailed snapshot of these important water quality indicators over a large and diverse water body.

Learn more about the study HERE!
nasa enso water water quality airborne jpl

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