Into the fog: Researching the California coastal staple

"Daniel Fernandez, a Cal State Monterey Bay professor and electrical engineer-turned-fog researcher, recently launched the Pacific Coastal Fog Research project. Fernandez and a team of researchers around the U.S., the self-anointed "Fog Five," were awarded a $733,000 grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to study the impact of climate change on fog over the next five years through the project. The Fog Five hope to clear up the debated present and future state of the iconic scenery staple of California's coast."

""It's so ever-present in so many of our lives," Fernandez says. "Whether we love it or hate it, it's there." Fernandez will be monitoring the intake of fog at 15 collectors he has already placed along the California coast. Each is in a unique topographic site. His research will attempt to expand coverage of fog monitoring from Eureka to San Diego, so he can determine patterns in fog's changing presence."

"First, Fernandez uses a "standard fog collector," a device built by Canadian nonprofit, FogQuest. The device is composed of a double layer of mesh erected in a square meter frame, a few meters above ground. A trough is placed below the mesh. As more and more fog passes through the collector, water droplets coalesce around the mesh and eventually drip into the trough. Fernandez then measures the volume of water in the trough. This tells him the liquid water content in the air."

Daniel Fernandez launched the Pacific Coastal Fog Research project with a team called the Fog Five and secured a $733,000 Heising-Simons Foundation grant to study climate change impacts on coastal fog over five years. Fernandez placed 15 fog collectors along the California coast in unique topographic sites to monitor fog intake from Eureka to San Diego. Measurements include liquid water content using FogQuest standard fog collectors and aerosol-style instruments that count and size droplets via laser illumination. Fernandez measures trough water volume to determine liquid water content and compares that with droplet number and size to quantify fog amount and density.

Read at The Mercury News