Reactive Reefs is an interdisciplinary coral reef imaging and mapping project that features award-winning advanced imaging techniques to provide centimeter-scale optical aerial maps and underwater gigapixel panoramas of at-risk coral habitats. Using a technique we developed called Fluid Lensing, we are able to use perturbations and small waves in the ocean’s surface to image shallow subsurface marine targets with minimal artifacts and distortion from an aerial platform with enhanced angular resolution. Summer 2013, our team is travelling with the Palumbi lab to Ofu island in American Samoa to generate maps of coral reefs of interest using Fluid Lensing from a small electric quad-copter equipped with our imagers. The effort will provide Stanford’s Palumbi and Pringle labs with valuable scientific data on coral health and distribution as well as one of the highest-resolution optical maps of a subsurface marine target to date.

In addition to its scientific mission, Reactive Reefs is a collaboration with Stanford’s Arts Institute and will culminate in an immersive science outreach exhibition that aims to transport the public beneath the ocean’s surface and convey firsthand how the world’s coral reefs change as a result of both natural and human pressures. Further information about Reactive Reefs, preliminary imaging results and Fluid Lensing is available at: www.vedphoto.com/reactive-reefs and www.vedphoto.com/himarc

Remember, all of this work is supported by people like you through my exhibitions. My latest exhibition, Above, Below & In-Between closes August 28th at the Sacramento Contemporary Art Gallery!