As our planet’s atmosphere, oceans, and land are increasingly experiencing extreme events, relying on mean values to predict future events is not practical. Establishing the ranges of variability and distributions of marine phytoplankton and related Carbon parameters is key to constraining biogeochemical cycles, Earth System Models, and ultimately Global Climate Models. The Rivero-Calle Lab has been working on studying submesoscale patterns and ranges of variability related to patchy phytoplankton blooms, Harmful Algal Bloom species, Net Community Production, and internal waves. In this talk, we will explain how we are collecting high resolution optical data from a miniature CubeSat satellite, state-of-the-art flowthrough systems on ships, and laboratory experiments with our prototype instrument, to show that inaccurate estimates of microscopic variability can have large-scale implications.

*Refreshments: 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM (Atrium)