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Texas A&M professor spearheads water quality initiative with NASA

Dr. Adnan Rajib, an assistant professor with Texas A&M - Kingsville, will be leading a NASA initiative to predict water quality using satellite data.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Dr. Adnan Rajib, an assistant professor of environmental engineering with Texas A&M - Kingsville, will be leading a NASA initiative to study track water quality across our country. The kicker? He and his team are going to do it with satellites.

Dr. Rajib and his team will be using satellite data along with on-the-ground observation to build a next generation computer model for predicting pollution levels in rivers across the United States.

As part of the project, Dr. Rajib is working with undergraduate student Alessandra Ruiz, graduate student Ashma Akter, and Ph.D. student Stella Zheng. These Javelina superstars will be working directly with NASA scientists.

Credit: TAMUK Javelina News
Dr. Adnan Rajib

With the growing threat of a climate crisis, it's more important than ever to understand exactly what is happening in our environments.

Alessandra Ruiz told TAMUK's Javelina news that "the water quality of our nation's streams and rivers is increasingly threatened by climate variability and anthropogenic disturbances."

Not only that, but "droughts and wildfires are causing a rise in water temperatures, yet, predicting these water quality parameters remains challenging due to the acute shortage of ground observations," said Ruiz.

This project aims to unite information we get from satellites with boots on the ground research. It's going to give researchers insight into how to protect our global water resources.

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