Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Star-Bulletin file photo
Reefs, including this one at Hanauma Bay, will be
studied with the benefit of a space-station camera.
The new technology will enable scientists to find
out the distribution of coral and algae in reefs
all over the world.

NASA grant lets UH
compete for $15 mil
space-camera project

The camera will make it
possible to map and study
the world's coral reefs

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

NASA has awarded University of Hawaii researchers $300,000 to compete for $15 million to develop a special camera for the international space station.

The purpose: To map and assess the health of coral reefs worldwide.

Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology Professor Marlin Atkinson heads the project, which draws together UH specialists in coral reef research, remote sensing systems and international implications of loss of coral-reef resources.

Scientists and students in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology are working with participants from the William S. Richardson School of Law.

Isle subcontractors get work

Manoa-based Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc., is developing the camera and Terrasystems, Inc., is working on a data-analysis system. Rather than go to mainland subcontractors, Atkinson said, "I decided to keep all the money in Hawaii."

He said his coral-reef group has worked with private companies and space scientists for nearly six years to develop technology for remote sensing of coral reefs from airplanes and space.

NASA's University Earth System Science Project offered an opportunity to apply the techniques to a worldwide coral-reef survey, he said.

The space agency selected five proposals from different institutions to develop concept studies for an earth-system science project. Two will be awarded $15 million each for implementation.

Other proposals mostly involve meteorological issues, said Paul Lucey, space scientist at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. "I think ours has quite a bit more pizazz."

Atkinson said it's hard to say what a healthy reef is. He prefers to talk about "overgrowth of algae and loss of coral."

People have different views about what's happening, he said, citing various problems: Bleaching from elevated sea temperatures, overfishing so algae isn't grazed and grows over the coral, sediment input, nutrient and storm impacts and natural diseases.

"There is worldwide concern that lots of coral is dying and algae is growing over it," Atkinson said. But this is debated, he added.

"We decided we would develop technology to ask one simple question: What is the distribution of coral and algae worldwide? What is it in pristine areas where there are no humans and what is it in areas with large cities, where a lot of fishing is going on?

"There are a variety of economic-social questions we can link to this whole issue," Atkinson said.

Nontraditional groups help

Lucey said NASA wants nontraditional departments involved so they can be exposed to what space scientists think. Thus, the researchers invited international relations faculty and students in the law school to participate.

"These coral reefs for some small nations and Indian nations basically are the only strategic resource they have. Implications could be very large," Lucey said.

He said coral reefs are "the marine analog to the tropical rain forest. There's no survey globally of what the status is."

Lucey became interested in the problem "because of a lament that we'll never be able to solve the problem worldwide. To a space scientist, it seemed a no-brainer. You measure properties of every reef from space and answer the question."

He said the plan is to put a very sophisticated digital camera on the space station that will store data in tapes brought back to Earth by astronauts every couple of months. Some data will be transmitted live.

Digital images will be taken in different colors aimed at telling the difference between types of coral reefs, Lucey said.

Kaneohe Bay is test site

Atkinson said the scientists are collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to map coral reefs in the main Hawaiian Islands with the imaging system planned for the space station.

Kaneohe Bay will be the test site, Atkinson said. "It is the most remotely sensed coral reef in the world, from airborne and satellite platforms."

Through work mostly by graduate students, the UH researchers have been able to distinguish coral from algae in images, Atkinson said. "The big question is how well does that work worldwide?"