Do you have a favourite sea-lebrity? And how you can help keep an eye on water quality?
This year we are celebrating World Oceans Day by sharing some mosaic artworks of our favourite sea-lebrities.
These sea-lebrities are made from more than 1100 individual photos from our EyeonWater Australia app. From crystal blue oceans to the murky brown of rivers, and everything in between.
And we want YOU to be part of it.
Can you guess the sea-lebrity? Scroll down to find out.
Eye on the prize
As your favourite national science agency, we haven’t suddenly decided to take the art world by storm. These photos are playing a key role for science.
EyeonWater Australia is a mobile phone app that has the potential to get citizen scientists wet behind the ears.
The images you upload through the app help us monitor water quality and how healthy our water is. Within each image is useful colour information. The different colours provide insights about what’s happening on and below the surface. Colour changes could be caused by algal blooms, pollution or sediment.
We use the app photos to calibrate satellite images, which have been processed to the same colour scale. Comparing app and satellite images at the same colour scale gives us information to detect changes in water quality.
Recently, EyeonWater Australia also helped us monitor water quality following bushfires. We monitored the flow of ash in the water after rain in areas impacted by fires.
Stellar STEM opportunity
We’ve been using water quality activities to connect schools and community groups across Australia with STEM. The app, and other hands-on activities, brings science to life. And students can learn more about the bodies of water in their local area.
For example, we have a long-term relationship with the Broome Senior High School Bushrangers Group to monitor water quality from Broome Jetty and on their remote excursions. While on these excursions, the students use the EyeonWater Australia app with Secchi disks to measure water clarity. They also use other instruments to measure dissolved oxygen, pH and temperature.
Students can put science into action while learning more about the tidal ocean around them. They can also track any changes to the water and analyse what may have caused it.
A picture worth a thousand words
In Australia alone, citizen scientists have uploaded more than 1100 images to the EyeonWater Australia app.
Water is life. And photos of water not only create cool mosaics of your favourite sea-celebrities. The data the photos provide is vital for long-term water management.
Finally, it’s with your help we can capture accurate and detailed water information. Simply by uploading a photo of a body of water, you could be helping scientists across the globe can keep an eye on water quality.
