Harmful algal blooms can be a problem not just along ocean coastlines but in freshwater bodies like Georgia’s lakes. CyanoTracker is a collaboration among UGA researchers in geography and computer science to use remote sensing technologies, in addition to community reports and image analytics, to identify such blooms before they can cause injury to people or animals.
Earlier this summer, a team of CyanoTracker students and researchers worked with SpaceWorks Enterprises Inc. to deploy two of the project’s sensing devices—CyanoTracker’s CyanoSense sensor, as well as SpaceWorks’ AquaBlinkR—at Lake Oglethorpe about 20 miles east of Athens. AquaBlinkR is an Internet of Things sensor, with a direct datalink to low-earth orbital satellites, that collects GPS, depth, temperature and salinity data.
Pictured (left to right) are Deepak Mishra, professor of geography; John Olds, founder and CEO of SpaceWorks; Charles Hall, program manager at SpaceWorks; and Abhishek Kumar (sitting), Ph.D. student in geography.
