The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is offering financial rewards of $30,000 for the detection of harmful algal blooms in photographs taken from space. Entitled “Tick Tick Bloom,” participants must study satellite images of inland water bodies to identify and separate algae blooms by severity.
The winner will receive $12,000. Second and third prizes are valued at $9,000 and $6,000, respectively. The top five must submit a paper on the methodology used, and the top two submissions will be awarded bonus prizes of $2,000 and $1,000. The competition will be open until February 17.
According to the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, algae depend on the sun to grow. Overgrowth of algae in water bodies leads to algal blooms. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) produce dangerous toxins that can affect humans and other organisms and threaten marine ecosystems by blocking sunlight.
The most common freshwater HABs in the United States are caused by cyanobacteria, which can produce cyanotoxins. Climate change has led to more frequent formation of HABs.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), toxins produced by HABs can be absorbed through the skin, inhaled, or consumed through contaminated food and can lead to flu-like symptoms, skin irritation, abnormal breathing, gastrointestinal symptoms, and even human paralysis. Seizures and death can also occur in some cases.
Generally, manual water sampling also known as “in situ” sampling is done to identify cyanobacteria. However, because this process takes a lot of time and effort, competition is used to train computer algorithms to detect algal blooms. NASA added that this will lead to better accuracy and timeliness for water quality managers to do their work at scale.
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