University of California
09/25/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/25/2025 15:04
UC Santa Cruz researchers win funds to characterize makeup of Pacific coastal fog
Researchers Peter Weiss-Penzias and Eyal Rahav at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have been awarded a five-year, $737,000 grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to characterize the chemical and biological composition of Pacific coastal fog water. Their research will contribute to a multi-institute project that ultimately aims to enhance society's ability to manage coastal resources and steward coastal ecosystems in a changing climate.
This interdisciplinary Pacific Coastal Fog Research project will attempt to provide answers to the most frequently asked fog questions in popular discourse and the media: How will fog change as the planet warms? Will it go away? "Understanding if and how fog will change as the climate warms is critical for societal planning for climate change," said Weiss, a continuing lecturer and faculty researcher in the Science Division.
Additionally, key questions such as what is in fog-including pollutants-and how much water fog provides to human systems like agriculture, are foundational to human health and resource management in the coastal environment, Weiss said.
Full bottle of fog water collected by the Weiss-Penzias Lab in one night last May.
Credit: Anja Ulfeldt
He and Rahav, an associate researcher in ocean sciences, plan to collect samples of fog water at 15 locations spanning the length of California, in different airsheds and transport histories. They are primarily interested in the spatial and temporal patterns of concentrations of inorganic nutrients and biological molecules-algal toxins-and chemical contaminants in California coastal fog water.
The active fog collector, the key device to be used for collecting water samples, will be designed and built by students in the Baskin School of Engineering using the Slugworks facility. More information can be found at the Weiss-Penzias Lab at UC Santa Cruz.
Four other campuses were also awarded funds last month for this research: San Francisco State University, California State University, Monterey Bay, UC San Diego, and Indiana University.
The Heising-Simons Foundation works with many partners to advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of young learners, and support human rights.
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