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MSU faculty member wins NASA grant to detect harmful algal blooms

07/31/2024
By: Erin Buckley

An assistant professor in Mississippi State University's agricultural and biological engineering department is enhancing global understanding and management of nearshore algal blooms electronically thanks to a NASA Early Career Investigator award.

Vitor Martins, a Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station scientist, leads the three-year funded study utilizing NASA satellite imagery to analyze blooms caused by excess nutrients—primarily nitrogen and phosphorus—in water. The study's goal is to develop deep learning-based software that detects these blooms using satellite images. The relevance of this research is underscored by the hazards posed by algal blooms, some of which are toxic to humans and wildlife and can cause sickness, especially in children.

Martins, along with MSU master's and doctoral students, will create a website with bloom mapping results developed in this project. The platform will enable users to verify the presence of algal blooms, contributing valuable data to coastal management.

"There is limited knowledge about nearshore algal bloom events worldwide. Satellite images at medium spatial resolution have not been fully explored in this context due to challenges in image processing for a reliable time series analysis. This research will characterize nearshore algal blooms and provide relevant spatially explicit information for public use," Martins said. "The preliminary research that led to this award involves using multi-sensor remote sensing data to study the water quality changes in coastal and inland waters across Mississippi. This includes generating a Landsat-Sentinel-2 water reflectance product, which was accomplished in 2023 based on other NASA seed funding."

Martins credits MSU for supporting the advancement of his research.

"Working at MSU has provided me with access to MSU High Performance Computing Collaboratory resources, collaborative opportunities with the MSU Coastal Research and Extension Center and a supportive research environment. The resources and expertise available at MSU have been instrumental in advancing my research," he said.

Scientists at MSU's Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station are committed to addressing critical environmental challenges through innovative research and collaboration. For more information, visit www.mafes.msstate.edu.

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