Flying Gybe Inc. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 13b

Description

Gybe provides water quality monitoring services using both remote sensing imagery, and an on the ground optical sensor network. Gybe's customers include the Public Works Department in the of City Salem, Oregon, where Gybe is monitoring for the presence of Harmful Algal Blooms in Detroit Reservoir, the drinking water supply for the city of Salem. This monitoring provides and 'early warning system' allowing the drinking water treatment plant to take proactive measures to insure safe drinking water to the city. Gybe's technology is easily scalable to the Watershed scale and can help both with regulatory compliance, as well achieving a better return of investment for its customers. Gybe's remote sensing water quality product maps currently include pigments, such a chlorophyll, and indicators of water quality, such as turbidity. However, water managers have also requested water quality maps covering additional parameters such 'nitrates' and pigments specific to 'harmful algal blooms' (e.g. phycocyanin). The Phase 1 of this proposal will demonstrate how to make water quality maps of these additional water quality parameters using both Gybe's optical sensor, and sensors on the USGS's 'super gauges,' along with remote sensing imagery (data fusion). Phase II of this proposal will include the development and deployment of a combined Gybe optical sensor, and a new in situ autonomous (low cost, easily scalable) sensors system (for nitrates, phosphorus, ammonia, and additional pigments), allowing monitoring, at the watershed scale, of a complete set of water quality parameters. For hydropower operators, Gybe's water quality maps aid with regulatory compliance by providing watershed scale data products for parameters such as turbidity and total suspended sediment loads, as well as providing information about issues that affect dam and power operations (e.g. algal blooms or invasive species leading to turbine clogging). Gybe’s goal is to assist with the sustainable use of water resources by closing the loop between on the ground operations and measurable outcomes, visible at the watershed scale using satellite imagery.