Every day for decades, NASA satellites have been collecting data about oceans and continents around the world.

This data, California State University, Northridge environmental geographer Mario Giraldo said, will provide valuable information about how climate change is impacting Southern California.

Giraldo is partnering with NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and enlisting the help of a team of undergraduate students to mine through more than 20 years of “big data,” looking for insights into how rapidly warming ocean waters are changing the region’s environment.

“‘Big data’ is when you have so much data that it gets hard to work and process it,” said Giraldo, who teaches in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “In this instance, NASA has been collecting data every day without fail for 10, 20 and more years, and it adds up. We are going to cut through that data and focus on the west coast of the United States.

“Climate change is creating changes in the ocean,” he said. “The more the oceans change, the more that change is going to impact the continental areas. The students are going to help us figure out what that impact is. They are going to help us sort through the data, figure out the right questions we should be asking, then help us look for answers and to develop a plan to communicate the findings to the public.”

Furthering the understanding of the impact of climate change on the West Coast, the project is designed to provide research mentoring opportunities for students across CSUN’s campus, not just geography majors.

“The students will truly be project team members, making contributions to the research while working alongside JPL engineers and scientist with Ph.Ds.,” Giraldo said. “They will be taking the lead in some of the data processing and analysis. The goal is to empower them and providing them with the career development opportunity so they can succeed in whatever career path they ultimately choose whether they go on to become researchers and academics, or choose a career in business, education or communications.”

Giraldo said the team will be using data science, geospatial analysis and machine learning, which uses algorithms to find patterns, trends and anomalies in the NASA datasets.

Under climate change the oceans are getting warmer, and the distribution of that heat will create changes that affect marine, coastal and continental ecosystems, Giraldo said.

“Variables such as the distribution of clouds or the salinity of the ocean will be impacted,” he said, noting that something as simple as changes in cloud patterns could impact the growth of vegetations in addition the temperatures on land. “How fast that change is, and where and when itis more severe define the way that local areas in the coastal US are affected.

“Large population of Californias live in close proximity with the oceans,” Giraldo said. “Focusing on the coast of Southern California makes the project directly relevant to  the lives of the students, their friends and loved ones, providing students with additional appreciation of  the impact of their research and findings, and how these findings can be used to prepare and adapt to the impacts of climate change.”