The Coastal Oceanography & Autonomous Systems Lab at UCSB is run by Dr. Nick Nidzieko in the Department of Geography. Our goal is to advance knowledge of how physical processes affect marine ecosystems. We seek to make novel measurements using autonomous platforms and emerging sensor technology.
New wave buoy!
Spotter serial no. 0139 showed up yesterday via UPS. An important part of our upper ocean turbulence study is understanding how momentum transfers across the air-sea interface under evolving sea states–when the wind and the waves aren’t aligned. We’ll be looking at this locally when diurnal sea breezes come out of the northwest while the…
Successful tests with EdgeTech 6205
As part of the ARPA-E MARINER project, we’re developing ways of using sonar to count kelp. We’re working with EdgeTech in the initial stages of the project, collecting data with a sonar mounted onto Resonance. These initial datasets will allow us to start the data processing work in parallel with the goal of ultimately collecting…
GRL paper describes turbulent mixing in the Chesapeake Bay plume
Turbulence measurements made by an autonomous underwater vehicle reveal that the wind‐driven offshore movement of a coastal river plume leads to intermittent and patchy mixing of plume and shelf waters. These novel, high‐resolution observations highlight the importance of capturing transient features when determining the fate of rivers on continental shelves. You read the accepted, in-press…
New NSF-funded project on Upper Ocean Turbulence
We’re excited to start a new project funded by NSF to study turbulence at the air-sea interface. The transfer of momentum from wind, into waves, and the upper layer of the ocean is a major component of the interaction between the Earth’s ocean and atmosphere. We’re using Callinectes, tricked out with some Nortek ADVs and a…
New PNAS paper on allometric scaling
Check out Nick’s new paper in PNAS, applying explanations of organismal metabolic scaling to estuarine ecosystem metabolism. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/06/06/1719963115/tab-article-info The paper explores an observation that larger estuaries tend to have a lower specific metabolism than smaller estuaries. This can be explained in terms of nonlinear changes in residence time: estuaries vary in size by nearly ten…
Construction is over!
After six months of construction (and nearly three years in the waiting), we’re moving into our new digs in Ellison 1620! There’s a ceiling mounted gantry crane, huge roll-up door, fabrication space (drill press, band saw, 3D printer), and lights! (No more flood lamps!) Before and after:
