Meet your instructors
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Cara Wilson Cara Wilson is a satellite oceanographer for the Environmental Research Division at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) and is the PI of two regional nodes of NOAA’s CoastWatch program – the West Coast Regional Node and PolarWatch, which are both housed at SWFSC. Her research interests are in using satellite data to examine bio-physical coupling in the surface ocean, with a particular focus on determining the biological and physical causes of the large chlorophyll blooms that often develop in late summer in the oligotrophic Pacific near 30°N. She received a Ph.D. in oceanography from Oregon State University in 1997, where she examined the physical dynamics of hydrothermal plumes. After getting her PhD she worked as the InterRidge Coordinator at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. Her introduction to remote sensing came with a post-doc at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center which involved analyzing TOPEX and SeaWiFS data. She is also the current chair of the IOCCG (International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group). |
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Dale Robinson Dale Robinson is the Operations Manager for West Coast Node and deputy PI for the PolarWatch. He works with local stakeholders and engagement partners to develop and distribute value-added satellite products that are designed for use in operational and research activities. Dale is based out of the NOAA SouthWest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz, CA. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California and has worked as a researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, and San Francisco State University. His research background is as a biological oceanographer studying phytoplankton productivity and ecology in Antarctic and the Arctic waters. |
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Sunny Hospital
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Michael Soracco Michael is a satellite data and ArcGIS expert at CoastWatch Central. He will be assisting with any questions you may have about data availability, access and GIS. |
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Melanie Abecassis Melanie works with the CoastWatch central team, which is based out of the NOAA NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research, in College Park, MD. She received her PhD from the University of Toulouse, France. Her background is in marine ecology, fisheries research and habitat-based models. She can help you with R questions, and to a lesser degree, Python and ArcGIS. |