Execute a balanced science program based on discipline-specific guidance from the national academies of sciences engineering and medicine administration priorities and direction from congress

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Shared Services Center awarded the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, $119,608 on April 16, 2026, under the NASA Science program (CFDA 43.001) to advance knowledge of wastewater plumes in coastal waters along the U.S./Mexico border using modeled and remotely sensed retrievals of coastal water quality. The award funds satellite remote sensing research to characterize water quality, including intercomparison of available satellite sensors and algorithms to evaluate performance metrics in California and Mexico coastal waters, investigation of optimizations for existing regional methods, extraction of matchups from top-performing remote sensing tools to modeled observations, and validation of model and remotely sensed parameters with quantified sensitivity analysis. Work is performed in La Jolla, California, with a period of performance through April 15, 2029. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution serves as a sub-recipient, with lead researcher Houskeeper conducting the satellite remote sensing methods work and providing remotely sensed observations to verify spatial dynamics represented in the project team's model.

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