Katie Valentine Tuesday, March 12, 2019 / Categories: Profile, Women in Research, In The Spotlight Sophie Chu Dr. Sophie Chu is a postdoctoral research associate working on testing the performance of carbon sensors at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). What drew you to your current career or field? I became interested in oceanography after reading about the North Pacific garbage patch in the New York Times. I started looking at graduate schools for oceanography and discovered the field of ocean acidification. What projects or research are you working on now? I have a few projects that I’m working on to evaluate prototype and commercially available carbon sensors. One involves the deployment of a pCO2 [partial pressure of carbon dioxide] optode sensor off the coast of Washington on a “profiling crawler” or PRAWLER, developed at NOAA PMEL. I compared the optode performance to a regional algorithm to assess its overall uncertainty. What do you enjoy most about your work? I enjoy working on sensor technology because autonomous sensors can enable scientists to get better spatial and temporal coverage than discrete bottle samples. Better data coverage can increase our understanding of the rate of ocean acidification across space and time. What was the best advice ever given to you that helped you become successful? Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. What’s been your favorite (or proudest) moment in your career so far? Finishing my thesis defense. What do you hope to accomplish in the future? What do you hope the future for women in science looks like? I hope there will be more women in senior positions and in leadership roles. Looking back, what would you tell yourself when you were 12 years old? Or what advice would you give to a woman just starting out in her career? I would tell myself to be more confident and not underestimate what I can do. Print 4793 Tags: PMEL research Women of NOAA scientists carbon Related articles Looking towards the future with NOAA Research Deputy Assistant Administrator Ko Barrett Women’s History Month: A conversation with Angeline Pendergrass Women’s History Month: A conversation with Allison Wing Managing uncertainty - and ocean science Sharing the joy of science through academia and aerosols
Despite pandemic shutdowns, carbon dioxide and methane surged in 2020 7Apr2021 Read more The global average carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere surged at the fifth-highest rate in NOAA's 63-year record during 2020. Preliminary estimates of the increase in methane levels indicate it may have been the largest annual jump on record. Read more
Climate-driven shifts in deep Lake Michigan water temperatures signal the loss of winter 16Mar2021 Read more Climate change is causing significant impacts on the Great Lakes and the surrounding region. As the largest surface freshwater system in the world, the Great Lakes have an enormous impact, seen and unseen, on the more than 34 million people who live within their collective basin. Because of their unique response to environmental conditions, Earth’s large lakes are considered by scientists as key sentinels of climate change. A long-term study published in Nature Communications today from NOAA reveals a warming trend in deepwater temperatures that foreshadows profound ecological change on the horizon. While less visible than the loss in ice cover and increasing lake surface temperatures, this latest index of climate change adds to the growing evidence of climate change impacts in the region. Read more
5 ways NOAA scientists are answering big questions about climate change 20Apr2021 Read more From warmer ocean temperatures to longer and more intense droughts and heat waves, climate change is affecting our entire planet. Scientists at NOAA have long worked to track, understand and predict how climate change is progressing and impacting ecosystems, communities and economies. Read more
New study shows promise of forecasting meteotsunamis 31Mar2021 Read more On the afternoon of April 13, 2018, a large wave of water surged across Lake Michigan and flooded the shores of the picturesque beach town of Ludington, Michigan, damaging homes and boat docks, and flooding intake pipes. Thanks to a local citizen’s photos and other data, NOAA scientists reconstructed the event in models and determined this was the first ever documented meteotsunami in the Great Lakes caused by an atmospheric inertia-gravity wave. Read more
NOAA report highlights 2020 climate, weather, ocean research 14Apr2021 Read more Launching uncrewed systems to monitor climate and ecosystem changes in the U.S. Arctic, sequencing the genome for endangered marine species, and improving weather forecasts with advances in regional models — these are just a few of NOAA’s scientific achievements in 2020. The newly released 2020 NOAA Science Report highlights the ways these accomplishments — and many more — provide the foundation for vital services that Americans use every day. Read more