{"id":8881,"date":"2026-04-27T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/ground_post\/off-uruguay-pace-partners-connect-data-from-satellite-and-sea\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T19:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:48:08","slug":"off-uruguay-pace-partners-connect-data-from-satellite-and-sea","status":"publish","type":"ground_post","link":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/ground_post\/off-uruguay-pace-partners-connect-data-from-satellite-and-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Off Uruguay, PACE Partners Connect Data from Satellite and Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"single-blog-1214813\" data-content-type=\"blog-entry\" data-blog-name=\"notes-from-the-field\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p> By Jason\u00a0Graff,\u00a0\u00a0Ph.D., Oregon State University\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s\u00a0Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/pace\/\">PACE<\/a>)\u00a0Validation Science Teams (PVST) rely on partnering with existing research expeditions to gather measurements\u202fwhile adding\u202fvalue to these\u202fcritical\u202fpartner programs. From mid-November to early December of 2025,\u00a0we did fieldwork\u00a0off the coast of Uruguay,\u00a0aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute\u2019s\u00a0ship\u00a0R\/V\u00a0<em>Falkor (too).\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Our PVST team is based at Oregon State University (OSU) as part of<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/phytoplanktonecophysiologylab\/).\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> the Phytoplankton Ecophysiology Col(lab)oration<\/a>.\u00a0Our research focus is\u00a0particles and biological rates (PVST-PBR). For this expedition, we\u00a0partnered with the<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/schmidtocean.org\/cruise\/searching-for-the-asgard\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Symbiotic Partners and Asgard Research Cruise<\/a>\u00a0(SPARC)<em>,\u00a0<\/em>a research team<em>\u202f<\/em>studying small microbes, called archaea, which are\u00a0thought to be the\u202fmost recent ancestors of eukaryotes,\u00a0which include all animals, plants, fungi, seaweed, and many one-celled organisms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The waters and ocean sediments offshore of Uruguay\u202fare\u202fhighly understudied, making it a unique location for a\u202fPACE\u202fPVST field campaign and an exciting opportunity to work alongside SPARC\u202fscientists.\u202f\u00a0My\u00a0research associate at OSU,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bios.asu.edu\/about\/team-members\/nick-baetge\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dr. Nicholas\u202f(Nick)\u202fBaetge<\/a>,\u00a0now\u00a0of\u00a0the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences,\u202fand I,\u00a0Jason Graff (PVST-PBR principal investigator), were\u00a0both\u202faboard\u00a0<em>Falkor (too)\u00a0<\/em>to\u00a0collect PVST measurements and collaborate with SPARC on this\u202fexciting\u202fexpedition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This parcel of the ocean was chosen due to the operating plans of the\u00a0<em>Falkor (too)<\/em>\u00a0in this region and the known existence of Asgard archaea (the microbes that\u202flikely gave\u202frise to\u00a0human\u00a0eukaryotic origins). While the SPARC scientists were\u202flargely focused\u202fon sediment sampling,\u00a0our team was\u00a0focused on surface ocean measurements for\u202fvalidating\u202fthe PACE <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earthdata.nasa.gov\/data\/instruments\/oci\" rel=\"noopener\">Ocean Color Instrument<\/a>\u2019s parameters\u00a0as it\u00a0observes\u00a0and models the\u00a0ocean\u202f\u00a0from\u00a0space. For our PVST-PBR\u202fteam,\u202fthis meant\u00a0measuring\u00a0particulate\u202forganic\u202fcarbon\u202f(POC), phytoplankton pigments, and surface\u202focean\u202foptical properties. These measurements of POC and phytoplankton community metrics, while critical for PACE validation\u00a0efforts, will also serve the SPARC team\u2019s needs to quantify and\u00a0describe\u00a0the\u00a0environment\u00a0above their study sites.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Falkor (too)<\/em>\u00a0has a\u202fscience\u202flaboratory dedicated\u00a0to\u202fusing continuous flow-through seawater\u202fto\u202fcollect\u202foptical\u202fmeasurements and discrete samples.\u00a0Measurements of incoming solar irradiance (sunlight\u202fgoing into the ocean) and radiance (light\u202fcoming out of the ocean) were also collected during the PACE satellite overpasses of this region.\u00a0Nick spearheaded many of these tasks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In addition to working with Nick on the PVST efforts, \u202fI\u202f collaborated\u00a0with SPARC\u202fcolleagues\u202fto\u202fcollect\u202farchaea from water and sediment samples,\u00a0using a\u00a0sorting flow cytometer, an instrument\u00a0that\u202fcan\u202fhelp\u202fidentify\u202fand\u202fisolate individual cells or populations of cells from other non-target particles.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The expedition was\u202fhighly successful, with\u202fPACE validation measurements being collected at satellite overpass times and SPARC-related sampling\u202fand cell isolations\u202ftaking place daily. The\u202fPVST-PBR team has provided these datasets to the NASA data repository\u202ffor use in validation efforts\u202fand discussions.\u00a0Data\u00a0exchanges with\u202fthe SPARC team continue as these samples are processed and explored for our eukaryotic origins.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"mobile-credits blog-sidebar\">\n<div class=\"post-author\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8505c3ac9e04e87d432d91536ed10ac5ba85f3bfb977dfee5e13fd160bc3eb5c?s=300&amp;d=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.science.nasa.gov%2Fdynamicimage%2Fassets%2Fscience%2Fpsd%2Fsolar%2Fbosf%2Fimages%2Feditor-page-nasa-logo-250s.png%3Fw%3D250%26h%3D250%26fit%3Dclip%26crop%3Dfaces%252Cfocalpoint&amp;r=g\"\/><\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"April 27, 2026 3:48PM\">April 27, 2026 3:48PM<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"more-from-footer\">\n<h2 class=\"more-from-header\">More from Notes from the Field<\/h2>\n<\/footer>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/blogs\/notes-from-the-field\/2026\/04\/27\/off-uruguay-pace-partners-connect-data-from-satellite-and-sea\/?rand=6382\" target=\"_blank\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jason\u00a0Graff,\u00a0\u00a0Ph.D., Oregon State University\u00a0\u00a0 NASA\u2019s\u00a0Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem (PACE)\u00a0Validation Science Teams (PVST) rely on partnering with existing research expeditions to gather measurements\u202fwhile adding\u202fvalue to these\u202fcritical\u202fpartner programs. From mid-November to early December of 2025,\u00a0we did fieldwork\u00a0off the coast of Uruguay,\u00a0aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute\u2019s\u00a0ship\u00a0R\/V\u00a0Falkor (too).\u00a0\u00a0 Our PVST team is based at Oregon State University (OSU) as part of&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":99086,"featured_media":8882,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[2362,444,449,1470,443,1559,2361],"ground_category":[137,313],"class_list":["post-8881","ground_post","type-ground_post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-connect","tag-data","tag-pace","tag-partners","tag-satellite","tag-sea","tag-uruguay","ground_category-1-grounds-science","ground_category-1-4-discover-saturn"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets.science.nasa.gov\/dynamicimage\/assets\/science\/esd\/articles\/2026\/nftf\/two_scientists.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_post\/8881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_post"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ground_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_post\/8881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8881"},{"taxonomy":"ground_category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_category?post=8881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}