Abstract: 

Coastal waters are hotspots of anthropogenic influences and are subject to multiple water quality issues on a global scale, including excessive loadings of sediments and nutrients, and the consequent harmful algal blooms and hypoxia. Chesapeake Bay is a prominent example of these issues. Adjacent to Washington DC, this region is also highly visible to political leaders of America. In this talk I will share my approaches of using satellite remote sensing to study the dynamics of estuarine turbidity maximum, to improve the detection of of chlorophyll concentration and phytoplankton community composition, and to study the spatio-temporal patterns of bottom hypoxia in this region.

Bio:

Dr. Guangming Zheng obtained his PhD in oceanography in 2013 from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD. His thesis focused on the inversion of remote-sensing reflectance to retrieve the inherent optical properties of seawater, particularly the partitioning of total absorption coefficient into algal and nonalgal components. Afterwards, he moved to NOAA/NESDIS/STAR to work on remote sensing of coastal waters, continuing the development and applications of optical inversion models. His current research interests include optical remote-sensing theories and their applications for monitoring coastal and inland water quality issues such as pathogen-laden plumes, harmful algal blooms, and hypoxia.