{"id":3034,"date":"2026-03-13T19:06:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/?p=3034"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:06:47","slug":"from-space-to-the-sea-oceanography-across-multiple-spatiotemporal-scales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/2026\/03\/13\/from-space-to-the-sea-oceanography-across-multiple-spatiotemporal-scales\/","title":{"rendered":"From Space to the Sea: Oceanography Across Multiple Spatiotemporal Scales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the greatest modern day science tools is satellite imagery. The remote capture of images from space allows researchers to understand spatial ecology better than ever before. However, it\u2019s imperative to know that what you can glean from remote sensing is accurate to what\u2019s occurring at the ground (or sea) level. In fact, if you were looking at a satellite image the minute it\u2019s taken, and zoomed all the way in, you might see a research vessel with Alexander Bailess on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander is a second-year Ph.D. student in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, joint-advised by Dr. Maria Kavanaugh and Dr. Andrew Barnard. Part of his doctoral research is ground-truthing, or verifying, remote sensing data by sailing the seas and collecting data at the same time that satellites are.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a0Alexander holding an underwater camera system for satellite matchups aboard the R\/V<\/em> Ruben Lasker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At sea, Alexander is also looking for a phytoplankton called Pseudo-nitzschia<\/em>. Almost half of Pseudo-nitzschia<\/em> species produce a potent neurotoxin called domoic acid (DA) which can cause a disorder in humans called amnesic shellfish poisoning. Harmful algae blooms (HABs) occur during dense aggregations of Pseudo-nitzschia<\/em>, poisoning organisms with DA across the trophic web. Work like Alexander\u2019s is important because it can help establish monitoring and management systems for HABs, allowing recreational and commercial fisheries to avoid toxic conditions. Fishermen citizen scientists also assist in this research by collecting water at-sea for researchers, like Alexander, to analyze.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A photo of a Pseudo-nitzschia <\/em>(credit: Wikipedia).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Alexander\u2019s work has taken him on dozens of research cruises all along the U.S. west coast. He is also a Scientific Diver and Divemaster, meaning his work often takes him below the sea surface as well \u2014 conducting surveys that connect what satellites see from above to what is living in the water below.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a>
Alexander collecting water samples in an underground aquifer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Alexander on the S\/V Tara, working with a new prototype for measuring ocean color.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Written by: Taylor Azizeh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the greatest modern day science tools is satellite imagery. The remote capture of images from space allows researchers to understand spatial ecology better than ever before. However, it\u2019s imperative to know that what you can glean from remote sensing is accurate to what\u2019s occurring at the ground (or sea) level. In fact, if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14867,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14867"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3042,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3034\/revisions\/3042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}