Blog

Here I document my experience with internships, summer schools, trainings and personal experiences

Field work coordination

Coordination of personnel and instrumentation for the sampling of microplastics on the surface of and in the sediments of Lake Victoria. A manta trawl net, plankton net and a sediment grab instruments were used to collect the samples.

Operating Jaz spectrometer

The jaz spectrometer was operated in the scope mode and used to capture light intensity measurements. Light measurements were captures of the sky, a grey board, the water surface and the light source. These were evaluated to produce the remote sensing reflectance of the water

Operating TriOS radiometers

TriOS radiometers were used to measure radiance values as follows; sky radiance, water leaving radiance and downwelling irradiance. These measurements were evaluated to produce remote sensing reflectance. The instruments were set to capture measurements every 5 minutes and the data will be published soon.

Remote Monitoring Systems training

I participated in a training on remote monitoring systems for the African great lakes. the training introduced multiple satellite systems, including the Copernicus suite of satellites and their water quality related products. The training also included hands on experience with water quality monitoring instruments

Journal paper edits

Edits were made to a journal paper that was successfully published in August 2021 and can be accessed here https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2021.05.005

Internship

Aquatic Remote Sensing, Instrumentation and Data Analysis

Part time internship was undertaken from 4th January 2021 to 30th November 2021, under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Gidudu at Makerere University in Uganda. The internship was conducted as a combination of fulltime, in-person activities and part-time, virtual activities

Learning Objectives

Field work coordination
Operating Jaz spectrometer
Operating TriOS radiometers
Remote Monitoring Systems training
Journal paper edits

Preliminary findings

Not all the findings can be published as the research is still ongoing and the data is yet to be published.

Jaz spectrometer measurements: instrument was over saturated with light, this was attributed to the large field of view of the instrument. Special parts were acquired to reduce the field of view of the instrument and measurements improved significantly.

TriOS radiometer measurements: radiance measurements were successfully converted to Rrs, 2 curves are shown on the left, the first was taken at noon and the second at 5pm. The effect of the sun angle is evident in the curves. Also the broad peak seen in the green range corresponds well with the green color identified on the Forel Ule color scale.

Future interns: this is a great place to train, there is lots of data to work on, there are many instruments, it is possible to tailor the work schedule and you get to give back to the community by mentoring students

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Prof. Anthony Gidudu of Makerere University, Uganda for the time and dedication he put into mentoring me, Dr. Garaba Shungu of Marine Sensor Systems Group, https://ioccg.org/group/marine-litter-debris/, Germany, for training me on the use and processing of data from the TriOS radiometers and the entire team of researchers from NAFIRRI and Makerere University for a wonderful internship experience.

Project Name

Summer School

Coming soon...