The KORUS Ocean Color expedition team on its research vessel. Photo credit: Naeun Kim.
Research team returns from an 18-day sea voyage – but it was no pleasure cruise.
Maria Tzortziou, associate professor of earth and atmospheric science at The City College of New York, was one of the lead scientists on the launch of Korea-United States Ocean Color (KORUS-OC) expedition, an 18-day oceanographic field campaign designed to tackle air-quality problems and capture coastal ocean dynamics in the East Sea and Yellow Sea. Comprised of scientists from National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, CUNY, and other US universities and research centers, the crew of KORUS-OC sought further understanding of the oceans’ biology and biogeochemistry.
Tzortziou and her group, City College PhD student Brian Lamb and UMD postdoc Ryan Stauffer, deployed and operated a shipboard Pandora spectrometer and in-situ sensors for measurements of atmospheric pollutants that will help understand how the marine ecosystem interacts with the land and atmosphere, and how human activities affect coastal ocean processes.
The team will analyze the collected data to evaluate ocean color observations from Korea's Geostationary Ocean Color Instrument (GOCI), and prepare for future NASA satellite ocean color missions, such as PACE and GEO-CAPE.
In addition to her CCNY position, Tzortziou is assistant director of Integrated Research Development at the College’s NOAA-CREST Institute; the NASA deputy program applications lead for ACE, PACE and GEO-CAPE Missions; and an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory.
Details of the KORUS-OC expedition are available on the CCNY Land-Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions (LOA) Lab blog.
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