The TO-GRO™ program gets more up-and-coming oceanographers out to sea conducting research.
This program allows graduate and recent graduate students to conduct ocean research. At the same time, we transit, which helps us all better understand and monitor the evolving biological and geochemical conditions of the Ocean.
Graduate oceanographers are limited in their chances to go to sea to advance research.
Big ship time is costly, has a high environmental impact, and it is competitive to be granted an opportunity to sail.
The TO-GRO program gets more up-and-coming oceanographers out to sea. With ORP, they can use their education, and gain sail-going and expedition-leadership experience while improving their ability to take complex optical measurements.
Continuous optical measurements and lab access to manage data and samples will support the TO-GRO participants for each transit cruise leg. Onboard RV Marie Tharp, they can test optical technology, and advance their research while jointly expanding the observations needed for the satellite remote sensing research community to interpret better satellite observations of the changes to the Ocean ecosystem. Data is submitted to NASA for public access and contributes to the students’ conference presentations and journal publications.
USA to Greenland and the Inaugural TO-GO Project
The crew leaves Maryland for Greenland with two young women oceanographers launching ORP’s underway – TO-GRO program. They will test and collect continuous water quality observations along the east coast along the Gulf Stream.
Your sponsorship will allow for collecting the first ocean measurements of RV Marie Tharp’s maiden voyage while the crew adjusts to life on Marie at sea and heads towards the iceberg-packed waters. This dataset will be used in comparison with NASA satellite ocean color models of surface biology from warm to cold water and is a major contribution to better-interpreting satellite monitoring of coastal biodiversity between a mid-latitude to high latitude climate.