UCI scientists use near real-time sensor data to detect coastal ocean...( a levels that officials use to determin...)

a levels that officials use to determine whether surf-zone water is safe for bathing, but UCI researchers discovered that changes in temperature and salinity can signal pollution if the data -- using a mathematical equation -- is transformed into a measurement of the range over which the data naturally fluctuates. This study shows for the first time that two measures of these fluctuations -- Fisher Information and Shannon Entropy -- can translate high-frequency sensor data into information suitable for near real-time management of the coastal ocean. Fisher Information and Shannon Entropy have been used in other cases to detect abnormalities in brain signals.

"At Newport and Huntington beaches -- where we tested the idea -- water quality violations were more likely to occur when, over the course of a single day, salinity fluctuated around a larger range of values and temperature fluctuated around a more narrow range of values," Grant said. "These patterns of fluctuation reflect the mixing of different parcels of water -- some contaminated and some not -- into the coastal ocean."

The research team analyzed data recorded over three months in early 2004 by a sensor located one meter underneath the water at Newport Pier. The sensor is part of a growing network of coastal sensors called the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System. During the period of data collection, local officials noted 35 days in which one or more water quality standards were violated at nearby Newport and Huntington beaches. Researchers then conducted a mathematical study to asses how water quality correlated with the daily average sensor measurements of salinity and temperature, and with the Fisher Information and Shannon Entropy calculated from this data.

Scientists found that water quality coincided with depressions in ocean salinity, but not with changes in near-shore ocean temperature. However, when the sensor data was transformed using Fisher Information
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Contact: Jennifer Fitzenberger
jfitzen@uci.edu
949-824-3969
University of California - Irvine
18-Sep-2006

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