Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Why is the ocean — and this team of researchers — looking pretty in pink? For science! Scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography have launched the PiNC (Plumes in Nearshore Conditions) experiment to study the coastal zone where a river meets the ocean. Using a non-toxic, environmentally safe pink dye and a suite of instruments, researchers released the dye in the mouth of the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon at Torrey Pines State Beach near San Diego, California in the winter of 2023.
Rivers and estuaries play an important role in delivering freshwater and materials such as sediments and contaminants to the coastal ocean, but little is known about how these plumes of more buoyant, fresher water interact with the denser, saltier and often colder nearshore ocean environment, particularly as the plumes encounter breaking waves. This experiment enables scientists to track the processes that take place when small-scale plumes of freshwater meet the surfzone.
Read the full news story: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/pink-dye-experiment-reveal-mysteries-coastal-ocean-dynamics
The experiment was led by Associate Professor Sarah Giddings and Postdoctoral Scholar Alex Simpson, with funding from the National Science Foundation (grant 1924005). Complementary data at the same site is funded by the California Department of Parks and Recreation Natural Resources Division, Oceanography Program.
#PinkOcean #ScienceExperiment #Oceanography #UCSanDiego #ScrippsOceanography #Scientist #Pink #TorreyPines #SanDiego #Oceanographer
Why is the ocean — and this team of researchers — looking pretty in pink? For science! Scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography have launched the PiNC (Plumes in Nearshore Conditions) experiment to study the coastal zone where a river meets the ocean. Using a non-toxic, environmentally safe pink dye and a suite of instruments, researchers released the dye in the mouth of the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon at Torrey Pines State Beach near San Diego, California in the winter of 2023.
Rivers and estuaries play an important role in delivering freshwater and materials such as sediments and contaminants to the coastal ocean, but little is known about how these plumes of more buoyant, fresher water interact with the denser, saltier and often colder nearshore ocean environment, particularly as the plumes encounter breaking waves. This experiment enables scientists to track the processes that take place when small-scale plumes of freshwater meet the surfzone.
Read the full news story: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/pink-dye-experiment-reveal-mysteries-coastal-ocean-dynamics
The experiment was led by Associate Professor Sarah Giddings and Postdoctoral Scholar Alex Simpson, with funding from the National Science Foundation (grant 1924005). Complementary data at the same site is funded by the California Department of Parks and Recreation Natural Resources Division, Oceanography Program.
#PinkOcean #ScienceExperiment #Oceanography #UCSanDiego #ScrippsOceanography #Scientist #Pink #TorreyPines #SanDiego #Oceanographer
