Aubrey
Cavender, Adam Keil and Phil Tackett are all graduate students
in the
chemistry department at Purdue University. They will be
performing various
experiments in Barrow aimed at producing a better understanding
of the
chemical interactions between the Arctic Ocean surface,
the Arctic snowpack,
and the lower atmosphere in a region that many scientists
consider to be
especially susceptible to the effects of global climate
change.
Barrow
project updates
Most recent photos of Barrow & the
people working there
Aubrey and Adam will have a small laboratory set up
southeast of the town of
Barrow. At this building there will be instruments set
up to measure various
compounds from local air masses and those that blow in
from over the Arctic
Ocean. Ocean air isn't likely to be tainted by emissions
from Barrow, and
carries with it chemical evidence of its interaction
with the ocean ice and
open water.
As a separate
project, Phil and Aubrey will be flying a tethered balloon
in
order to investigate the vertical extent of the influence
of the snowpack on
the lower atmosphere. Various chemical compounds are
emitted from the
snowpack when the sun shines, and these compounds rise
through the atmosphere until they are removed by natural
processes. How high these compounds rise before impacting
air chemistry is yet unknown and is certainly of importance
in understanding their role in Arctic atmospheric processes
and, hence, Arctic and global climate change. Air samples
will be taken at various altitudes from a sampler that
was built to hang under the balloon. These samples will
then be analyzed by Phil in lab space provided by BASC
(Barrow Arctic Science
Consortium).
