Peter Weiss-Penzias and Oceanographer Eyal Rahav were recently awarded a 5-year grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to study the chemistry and biology of fog water. This project will be collaborative with scientists at Indiana University, San Francisco State University, CSU Monterey Bay, and UC San Diego. We plan to sample fog at the sites shown on this map.

The above map shows Scripps satellite climatology (1996-2024) of May–September fog and low cloud cover (FLCC) occurrence across California and proposed fog monitoring (FoMo) sites (pins). Pin colors indicate groupings for latitudinal and elevational transects, large pins indicate FoMo supersites combining fog water, meteorological, and chemical/biological sampling; small vertical pins indicate fog water and meteorological sampling only, and small tilted pins indicate bio/chem sampling only.

Below is a sampling plan for fog water and atmospheric aerosol particles.

We have collected fog water during the summer of 2025 and will be presenting these results at the 2025 American Geophysical Union Meeting in December in New Orleans.