October 2002 Meeting Abstract
A recurring problem in marine sciences is gathering sufficient data to describe the variability occurring in large water bodies because of the great expense involved. Water masses were visualized as laterally homogeneous over large areas because of the limited ability to gather spatially distributed data that would scale with potential spatial variability. Even the ability to gather data with sufficiently dense vertical spacing was difficult because of the time required to sample and analyze samples.
Automated electronic data loggers were eventually developed that could be deployed and retrieved rapidly, accumulate data at discreet intervals in a matter of seconds, and store it for downloading. Automated samplers provide only part of the answer to the problem however. Each sampling location is still only a single discrete point, and even with many such points, the variation is still difficult to visualize in three dimensions if the data return is too large to assimilate and visualize easily.
Three-dimensional visualization software solves this problem by allowing us to enter the data into 3-dimensional space and to model the total volume of the watermass by correlating among data points. At the Great Lakes Center, we have applied these technologies in three projects: 1) determining the 3-dimensional structure of the physico-chemical parameters in eastern Lake Erie, 2) tracking the plume of the Buffalo River as it enters Lake Erie and the Niagara River in an effort to determine the transport paths of associated contaminants into these receiving waters, and 3) analyzing the effects of Coriolis veering on the plume of the Niagara River in Lake Ontario.
I look forward to seeing you at the October meeting.
Lea Cervi
Executive V.P.