Year 2024 news
RSSRG inaugurates a new facility in Belmont, to host the NASA MarONet activity
February 2024
The “Marine Optical Network” (MarONet) is a NASA-funded project by which Curtin’s RSSRG are responsible for deployment and operation of a large marine infrastructure used for so-called “system vicarious calibration” of the NASA PACE mission.
The new facility is where the 2 MarONet moorings and buoys will be assembled, calibrated, tested and prepared for successive 4- to 6-month deployments at sea.
The facility combines a large warehouse (~400 sqm) where all equipment and operations will take place, and office space where our technical team will be able to work and where we will regularly host our collaborators from the US part of this program.
The MarONet mooring is deployed!
February 2024
MarONet, has been specifically developed to support the “Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem” (PACE) mission, the first global hyperspectral ocean colour mission.
MarONet consists of two identical buoys deployed off Hawaii and Perth, which host a new generation of field deployable state-of-the-art spectrometers used for calibration of the satellite sensors. The rationale for 2 sites as part of MarONet is to collect more data in any given time frame, to include different atmospheric and oceanic conditions in the SVC, and to combine geometries of observation by having sites in both hemispheres. The Perth site was chosen in particular for its often extremely clear atmosphere, moderate variability of ocean optical properties.
The second part of the system, a 15-m tall spar buoy hosting the sea-deployable spectrometer, will be connected to the mooring around April 2024.
RSSRG welcomes Timothy (Tim) Burrell, Marine Optical Engineer working for our MarONet and “Blue Water Cal/val” IMOS activities.
February 2024
Tim joined the RSSRG in February 2024 and will divide his time between two projects: the Marine Optical Network (MarONet) Project and the Ocean Color–Blue Water Calibration/Validation Project under the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS).
Before joining RSSRG, Tim earned his PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Hawai’i Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) before transitioning into a role as a Senior Research Specialist at the University of Hawai’i. During this time, Tim actively participated in the monthly Hawai’i Ocean Time-series (HOT) project and contributed to the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE) supported by the Simons Foundation. With a strong foundation in field-based oceanographic science, Tim brings a diverse skill set to his work at Curtin University and looks forward to applying his expertise.