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Letters from Antarctica #5

April 19, 2025

Photo of Nawrath deploying an expendable bathythermograph (XBT) to measure water temperature

There is something about a maritime environment that draws in a variety of people. This voyage is no different. For the science crew, going to sea is an infrequent experience or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the crew, this is their norm. So many pathways can lead you here, so one of the questions that I find myself asking everyone is “How did you end up on this voyage?”

I hope to share several people’s journey to working on an Antarctic research vessel. In this letter I will be doing a short profile of a fellow scientist.

Katie Nawrath, Biogeochemist

Katie Nawrath is studying biogeochemistry onboard the Nuyina. Her story starts with growing up near the ocean in Queensland, Australia. Her path to marine science wasn’t straightforward though. Originally, she completed a degree in physiotherapy. She practiced it for 5 years, but her heart was never in it.

In what she described as “a sideways move,” she worked as a game tester for Survivor in Fiji. She said that that job “fulfilled her need to be next to the ocean.” The job ended in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, and she moved back to Queensland and started practicing physiotherapy again. During that time, she took a free, six-month online course from University of Tasmania on Antarctic and Climate Science. The coursework covered climate science and marine science, but she found the later the more interesting. At that point, she decided to move to Tasmania to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Marine and Antarctic Science.

In her third year, she was enrolled in a course called Oceanographic Methods that included sailing on a short transit voyage from Fremantle to Hobart after the Multidisciplinary Investigations of the Southern Oceanvoyage last year. Since I was a scientist on the same voyage, Katie and I could have crossed paths last March on the wharf in Fremantle. On the transit voyage, the students learned oceanographic sampling methods like taking CTDs (Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth measurements) and practicing sampling water.

Katie also worked in a lab washing glassware like vials and beakers for upcoming field work. One day, her boss offered her the opportunity to complete an Honors project that would include participating in the two-month Denman Marine Voyage beginning in March. In Australia, an Honors is a year-long project after finishing a bachelor’s degree. It is often a precursor to a PhD. She accepted the offer and is working on a project comparing the productivity and carbon export in the eastern side versus the western side of the Denman Iceglacier Tongue, a floating extension of the eponymous glacier, which is melting from the bottom up and is susceptible to marine ice sheet instability due to warm water intrusion, potentially leading to rapid retreat and contributing to global sea level rise.

Katie is a volunteer on this voyage although her lab is funded through Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) which is a government funded program. In Australia, Centres for Excellence are formed which focus on research areas and topics.

Katie’s Honor's project will last nine months. After she is finished with the project, she wants to keep embarking on voyages, hopefully to Antarctica. She said “It is the ocean that brought me here” and she wants to keep studying it.

Letters from Antarctica #4

April 19, 2025

Stapleton shoveling away at the constant deluge of snow and ice onboard

I hope to share several people’s journey to working on an Antarctic research vessel. In this letter I will be doing a short profile of a field safety officer on board, with the next being of a fellow scientist.

Mick Stapleton, field safety officer

I am lucky enough to share a volunteer shift of sea ice observations with Mick Stapleton, the field safety officer for the seal tagging team. His job is to ensure that ice floes are safe for people to walk on in order to complete seal tagging operations. There is a long list of skills that the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) of the country’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment & Water is interested in when hiring field safety experts. It is impossible for one person to have expertise in everything, so most field safety officers have a niche of experience. For Mick, if it involves watercraft or snow machines, his name is likely to come up when looking for a field safety officer.

In the southern hemisphere summers, Mick works as a field safety officer in Antarctica. But his homebase is Victoria, Australia where he works in the winters as ski patrol for a ski resort. His interest in skiing and snow is what started him on this career path. According to Mick, “most Australians don’t work in snow or have experience with snow machines,” so his experience as a ski patroller helped him stand out when applying for field safety officer positions.

Beyond that, Mick has a BA in Outdoor Education and a Diploma of Education. He taught secondary school previously and has experience as a white-water kayaking instructor. Teaching experience, especially in the outdoors, and training in water rescue and first aid are two things that the AAD looks for in field safety officers.

Even with Mick’s experience, it took him six years of applying before he was hired. A small-world connection between participants on this voyage is that during Mick’s first season in Antarctica, he was the safety officer for a field campaign run by another scientist, Benoit, who is on this voyage as well. Earlier their work involved riding snowmobiles around a sea ice field to map out the topography of the area. They lived in tents on the ice for 40 days. That was 20 years ago but both Mick and Benoit both still find themselves coming back to the Antarctic.

On this voyage, Mick helps to assess if a floe is safe for the seal team to walk on. He measures the thickness of the floe, making sure it can support the weight of the team walking around on it. He also checks for structural weaknesses like ridges, undercuts, or snow filled cracks in the ice. He is the first person on the floe and the last person off, ensuring that the whole operation is safe.

Letters from Antarctica #3

April 19, 2025

Boddy releasing a weather balloon for atmospheric research

I hope to share several people’s journey to working on an Antarctic research vessel. In this letter. I will start with a member of Nuyina’s crew. In subsequent letter’s I will move to a short profile of a field safety officer on board and a scientist.

Stephen Boddy, Deck Operations

Stephen Boddy is one of the IRs (integrated rating) on board Nuyina. He is from Melbourne. One morning at breakfast, Stephen told me that he had a job working for IBM directly out of college where his father worked. However, he quickly learned that he didn’t want to work in an office. At 21 he made a promise to himself that “he would never work inside again” and he has stuck to that. He has stories about working as a windsurfing instructor, an extra in a movie and a field geologist.

After hearing some of Stephen’s stories, I was curious to understand how he ended up working on Nuyina. He said, “It all started when I was 11 when I learned to sail.” Starting his maritime career, he worked on racing boats, delivering yachts, and working on fish farms. This foundation in maritime work is what set him up for an apprenticeship when he found himself in the right circles to become an IR.

The IR certification qualifies a person to operate deck equipment to help with deployments of instruments for the science teams. For each balloon launch the atmospheric science team completes, there is an IR helping us with the deployment by opening the 15 ton heli-hangar door. Their work for other operations includes tasks ranging from operating heavy-duty winches for the sea water sampling to lowering the seal tagging team’s boats off the ship with cranes. The IRs keep the operations on board the ship going and our science wouldn’t be possible without them.

IRs are in high demand, but the certification is very competitive. Stephen said that nine years ago, when he completed his training, most IR positions were passed down through family lines from fathers to sons. However, he met the lecturer for an IR course in Perth while playing poker one night. Because of Stephen’s maritime background the lecturer helped him to get into the 15-week, full-time course at a technical college to become an IR. The coursework is followed by a one and a half year apprenticeship. As an apprentice, he worked on six ships including Australia’s other research vessel, RV Investigator.

While the pay of working on oil and gas tankers was better, Stephen was at odds with the industry and preferred working on the science vessels. Two years ago, a representative of the maritime union called Stephen and asked him what his ideal ship to work on would be. He answered, “The Nuyina.”

The West’s latest air quality threats

April 14, 2025

Kevin Perry

Both are associated with climate change, which is making the West drier and warmer. Neither can be controlled through traditional emission-reduction programs that have helped reduce smog all over the West, especially in Los Angeles.

The symposium’s keynote speaker Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, executive director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network, explored the need for greater equity in how we protect children from air pollution. The other featured speaker, UCLA law professor Ann Carlson, discussed the progress Los Angeles has made in recent decades to rein in emissions responsible for its once-notorious air pollution and what lessons it offers for other cities struggling with bad air.

Reducing vehicle and industrial emissions alleviates particulate and ozone pollution, but such measures make little difference for smoke and dust.

A new Dust Bowl?

Salt Lake City is affected by countless dust sources—gravel quarries, the long-dried Sevier Lake, roads and lands disturbed by cattle grazing and off-roading. But the most troubling could be the shrinking Great Salt Lake, yet the state of Utah has yet to deploy the monitoring equipment to know for sure, said Kevin Perry, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. His tireless sampling forays by bike have earned him the moniker of Dr. Dust.

Derek Mallia

According to Perry’s research, there are four major “hotspots” on the 750 square miles of exposed playa where winds can lift dust into the air and potentially push it into populated areas and nearby mountains, Perry said on a panel devoted to the dust issue. These spots occur where the lakebed crusts have been disturbed, exposing the underlying sediments to the influence of the wind.

Hotspots closest to residential areas are in Farmington Bay, as well as in Bear River Bay, where most of the dust sources are located at elevations above 4,202 feet, nearly 10 feet above where the lake level stands, Perry said. The Farmington Bay spots tend to be at lower elevations.

“You can cover up a significant quantity of these dust hotspots at a lake elevation of 4,200 feet and get 70% coverage at 4,202,” he said. The lake’s ever-fluctuating level is currently at 4,193, a good 5 feet below what officials say is needed to restore Great Salt Lake’s ecological health.

“All of these dust hotspots that I’ve measured are currently exposed. They’re too wet to blow right now, but that’ll change as we move into the drier season,” Perry said. “Even if you bring that lake up to 4,198 feet, that will only cover up about 40% of the dust hotspots.”

Wind events, especially in spring, drive a big share of the Wasatch Front’s dust problem, pushing particulate pollution from the lake and other sources into the cities of Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties and into the mountains where it settles onto the snowpack. Research shows this dust contains elevated levels of cadmium, arsenic, lead and other hazardous metals, depending on its source.

“Before a cold front hits our valley, we have really strong winds from the south that scream 25 mph or more for up to 18 hours. As that front passes, the winds change and move from the west to the northwest and stay strong for a few hours. So if you look at the data from the airport at Salt Lake International Airport, when we have these strong wind events that create these big dust storms, 75% of the time the dust is moving north to communities of Layton and Syracuse and Ogden.”

Perry and his colleagues, including Derek Mallia, are eager to quantify the impact of lake playa dust on Wasatch Front cities, but there is currently not sufficient data being collected along the lake’s populated eastern shore, he said.

Read the full article by Brian Maffly in @ The U.

Dust in the Wind: How cities alter natural airborne particles

April 5, 2025

Map of the study area in the southwestern United States. Dust collectors are marked by stars corresponding to their position. The background image is an atmospheric footprint map derived from HYSPLIT-STILT backward trajectory simulations denoting the frequency with which air masses crossed different landscape positions en route to the Salt Lake City/Provo urban area during the two-year duration of this study. Warmer colors (higher values) correspond to areas more likely to have served as a regional source for dust reaching the urban collectors.

Airborne dust pollution has been a concern for Utahns for several years, especially with the exposed lakebed of Great Salt Lake potentially becoming more hazardous as the lake dries. Natural dust blows from the Great Basin and settles along the western edge of the Wasatch Front, Utah’s major population center, and the surrounding mountains. While airborne, the dust mixes with local human-made materials, potentially contaminating the nearby watershed and resulting in other negative consequences, according to new research from the University of Utah that investigates the influence of urban environments on transient dust.

A study team led by U atmospheric scientist Kevin Perry and Jeff Munroe, a geology professor at Middlebury College, considered Earth’s “Critical Zone,” a near-surface layer where organisms interact with rock, air, soils and water. Dust processes such as deposition, erosion and transport influence the Critical Zone.

Dust particles are typically diverse in their composition, as they are influenced by natural environments. However, agriculture, grazing, off-roading, construction, mining and other human activities alter the dust composition, with important implications for places like Utah’s populated Salt Lake Valley.

“The problem is that there are lots of dust sources in the urban area, and when it’s windy and it’s picking up dust from Great Salt Lake and other places upstream, it gets mixed in with this local dust that has a lot more junk in it,” Perry said. “So if we think about the contaminants of concern in Great Salt Lake dust, and then you add in additional contaminants from the local dust, it just makes it that much more potent, and not in a good way.”

Home to 2.5 million people, or three-fourths of Utah’s population, the Wasatch Front is particularly susceptible to dust pollution, so it provides an ideal laboratory for investigating interactions between natural and urban dust, according to the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation.

“Our dust comes from various sources. We have natural sources like the West Desert, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Sevier Lake, but then we also have a lot of dust from Great Salt Lake and anthropogenic dust sources, quarries at Point of the Mountain, the Staker quarry in North Salt Lake,” said co-author Derek Mallia, a research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences. “This can be locally sourced, but you can also get dust impacts from sources on the other side of the Great Basin. An artifact of being on the eastern side of the Great Basin is we’re just downwind of a ton of dust sources.”

Read the full article by Ethan Hood in @The U.

Letters from Antarctica #2

March 24, 2025

Three days ago, we got to experience the superpowers of Nuyina as we broke through ice for one kilometer to reach the Denman Glacier. The excitement and spectacle of pushing through sea ice brought everyone out on the decks. It was cold out, so everyone was bundled in layers of clothing and our matching yellow and black coats supplied by the Australian Antarctic Division. Leaning over the railing, I watched as huge pieces of ice bubbled up from deep in the water after being pushed under the hull of the ship. They would rush to the surface, causing a torrent of water to spill over the sides of the ice like a temporary rapid.

shipping container labs

While the experience of breaking ice is new to me, it is normal for Nuyina. Since she first arrived in Hobart in 2021, the ship has been resupplying the Australian Antarctic stations. However, the ship was also built for completing research with scientific labs, a moonpool for water sampling, a CTD (stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth but refers to an instrument for sampling ocean water) hangar, and more science-related infrastructure. This is Nuyina’s first dedicated scientific voyage. Instead of being stocked full of supplies for Australia’s four sub-Antarctic and Antarctic research stations, the cargo hold is packed with shipping containers that have been converted into labs. The heli-hangar is full of floats that will be deployed to collect samples and data. And for the first time, instead of being empty rooms, Nuyina’s labs are bustling with scientists processing newly collected samples.

On this voyage, we almost fill the ship to capacity with about 60 research scientists and 60 crew members and support staff. The scientists on board are split into ten different research teams with topics ranging from biology to geology to atmospheric sciences. Similarly, physical places we are studying vary from sampling sediment layers at the bottom of the ocean to deploying weather balloons that reach the stratosphere. But one thing that all of the different scientists have in common is our region of study: the Southern Ocean.

Barber on deck as a field of broken ice stretches off into the distance

the balloon people

For this voyage, our destination is the Denman Glacier. But as the saying goes, the journey is as important as the destination. My research team, the atmospheric scientists — or as we are colloquially known on the ship, “the balloon people” — has been collecting data since leaving Hobart. We are interested in studying clouds and aerosols in the Southern Ocean and along the coast of Antarctica. Participating in this voyage allows us to be in the region we want to study as well as partner with other teams on board to understand interdisciplinary connections between the ocean and the atmosphere.

The journey has been productive for us as we had the opportunity to release weather balloons in a stratocumulus cloud field in the middle latitudes of the Southern Ocean during the transit down to the glacier. Now that we are at the glacier, we are interested in air masses coming off of the continent or air masses that pass over biologically active areas. In general, we are happy to sample air anywhere near Antarctica.

Other teams on board are more location-dependent. The Denman Glacier is unique geographically because underneath it is the deepest canyon on any of the continents. It reaches 11,500 ft below sea level according to a study by Mathieu Morlighem. That is almost twice as deep as the deepest part of the Grand Canyon. The tongue of the glacier pushes out from the continent, floating on the ocean, and our sampling path has followed along the face of the glacier.

One activity on board has been daily scientific presentations after lunch. Over the course of these presentations, several things have stood out to me. One very clear feature reveals itself in almost every map shown by research groups: Eastern Antarctica (the region south of Australia) is a very data-sparse region. Most of the reason for the lack of observations is geographical, with a one-way voyage from Hobart to the coast of East Antarctica taking as long as a round-trip tourist cruise from Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula and back again. Eastern Antarctica also has less infrastructure with fewer bases and fewer countries operating vessels in the region. All those factors lead to less data being collected in this region.

Large sheets of ice stretch for as far as the eye can see, A common sight in the region: a common sight in the region.

Another common theme in the science talks is the ability to generate a historical story from the region. In a talk by Sally Lau, she discussed how the genetics of a species of octopus could help scientists to understand how shelf-dwelling species survived the glacial periods where ice sheets would have scraped across their habitat. Another record of the history of the region is the layers of sediment in the bottom of the ocean which scientists sample from the Nuyina using coring equipment. When collecting a sediment core, you get a layered stack of mud samples back. Those samples go back in time as you go deeper in the column. Based on the biology and chemistry of the mud, you can date the layers. The properties of the Southern Ocean at the time the mud was deposited can be understood based on what is encapsulated in the sample.

Collecting these samples from the bottom of the ocean is not an easy task and our location makes it even more difficult. Mick, our sea-ice safety expert on the seal tagging team, joked that the glacier is “an iceberg making machine.” That point was driven home this morning by the icebergs moving past the ship at a speed of 3 knots. The ship was keeping its same position as we completed some ocean water sampling but there was the illusion that we were moving as the icebergs were pushed around us by strong underwater currents. The crew’s expertise allowed us to stay in the same location for an hour and a half with instruments in the water without colliding with the huge, moving icebergs around us.

Next week, I will explore how this group of voyage members ended up on the Nuyina. With people from over ten different countries and an array of experience and backgrounds, I will trace back some of the paths that lead to working on a research vessel.

Letters from Antarctica Hub

March 24, 2025

Letters from Antarctica #1

March 24, 2025

Photo from the wharf before boarding the ship. Note the high-vis and hardhat for safety during operations.

Studying a region of the world without seeing it firsthand is a bit like moving to a city that you have never been to. You can look at pictures, check the weather, dive into the data, run google searches, and connect with other people who have been to the region. But it is hard to fully understand what a place is like without getting to spend time there. That is why so many scientists (myself included) value participating in field work.

I am currently on the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina (pronounced ‘noy-yee-nah’) with 60 other scientists and around 60 crew members. One of the questions I get asked most frequently is “How did you end up here?” It’s a good question. As a Utahn — a land-locked state — sailing on an Australian ship in the Southern Ocean, I do seem a bit out of place. I never would have guessed that my career path would take me here, but I’m glad it did.

I completed my undergraduate education at Westminster University in physics. I enjoyed all of my course work but was most invested in the applied physics topics. I also completed a minor in environmental studies, mostly motivated by my love of recreating in the outdoors. If I could complete a class while hiking in the mountains or standing in a river, that was ideal.

A pivotal moment during my time at Westminster was studying abroad in Mongolia. I participated in Round River Conservation Studies which is a program that focuses on completing conservation research while living and taking classes in the field. We traveled by plane, train and car to get to a strictly protected area on the northern border of Mongolia. The experience of crawling out of my tent every morning and being surrounded by the trees I was writing species reports about was incredible.

Some filter units mounted on the ship’s railing.

Getting my sea legs

That experience hooked me on field work. When I graduated and started looking into graduate school options, getting to participate in research campaigns was at the top of my list. I started applying to programs in physics-related fields and decided atmospheric science was the ideal path to follow. I also had an interest in polar science (science focused around the northern or southern poles) but thought that finding a position in that topic would be difficult. During my application process, I sent emails to potential advisors at all of the schools I applied to. I was planning on moving away from Utah and accepting a position at a different institution. However, my advisor, Jay Mace, reached out with an offer I couldn’t refuse: to study clouds in the Southern Ocean region.

Jay has been highly involved in Southern Ocean cloud and precipitation research since connecting with Alain Protat, a researcher at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, Australia. The two have collaborated for around 15 years on projects relating to the Southern Ocean. Eventually, Jay found himself participating in research voyages on Australian vessels, and soon he was looking for a student to cover some of the research voyages. That is where I came in.

My first time on a ship was a two-week voyage on the RV Investigator out to a buoy in the Southern Ocean. It is an established research location with annual voyages to retrieve and replace the buoy. The location of the buoy is right along the storm track making the voyage quite rough in terms of swell and weather. However, it is a good test of how a person deals with seasickness and life on a ship.

Once I had some experience at sea, more opportunities tended to come up. My second voyage was a 65-day voyage called Multiple Investigations of the Southern Ocean (or MISO, for short) where we sailed from Hobart, Tasmania to the coast of Antarctica and back up to Perth, Australia. During the voyage, we spent about two days close enough to the continent to see it. In discussing my third voyage that I’m currently on, Jay said “think of the best two days from MISO. It will be like that for four weeks.” All of the voyages I have participated in have been in the Southern Ocean, but even with the Australian research vessels and voyages, many questions still remain about the area.

Photo of an LN2 calibration for the microwave radiometer during the week of prep work and set up for the voyage.

Pre-voyage prep

The Southern Ocean is a data-sparse region due to the lack of people and landmasses. Australia has two ships dedicated to completing scientific voyages. Getting to sail on those voyages allows us to have surface observations of what is happening in the region to fill in some of our gaps in knowledge about the area. However, being on a ship has its own set of challenges.

The pre-voyage prep is essential to collecting good data; however, the timeframe for prep is often short. Time on the ship is a commodity. The icebreaker is also used for resupplying the Antarctic stations, so the turn-around between voyages is very short, in this case a week. The suite of atmospheric instruments that we have on board required a week’s worth of set up before setting sail.

Setting up the ship means different things for the different science teams on board. For the atmospheric science team, we build stands for our instruments, run power and data cables and complete calibrations before we hit rough conditions. For other teams like the trace metal team, they spend months acid washing and prepping glassware for the voyage. This voyage also requires more work than usual because this is the first scientific voyage on the Nuyina and the labs need to be set up.

The effort, prep, and anticipation for this voyage has taken years. From the process of writing proposals for the voyage itself, finding funding through grants, and completing all of the prep work for the voyage, everyone was excited to finally come on board.

We are currently a week into the voyage and throughout this article series, I will cover what it is like to live and work on a ship, discuss some of the science happening on board and talk about the Denman Glacier where we are heading.

Thanks for following along!

An emissions tale of two cities: SLC & LA

February 28, 2025

Utah and Southern California differ sharply in their approaches to this problem, with the latter implementing more stringent regulations and fuel standards aimed at reducing emissions from motor vehicles. New research from the University of Utah, in collaboration with University of California scientists, shows California’s earlier adoption of stricter rules may have helped lower concentrations of one pollutant—carbon monoxide, or CO—on LA freeways.

We wanted to see empirically how emission characteristics have changed in these two cities over time,” said co-author John Lin, a Utah professor of atmospheric sciences. The research was initiated by Francesca Hopkins, a professor of climate change and sustainability at UC Riverside, and conducted with colleagues at UC Irvine.

The study relied on measurements taken by mobile labs that drove up and down LA and Salt Lake freeways for a few weeks in the summers of 2013 and 2019, with follow-up data gathering in Los Angeles over the next two summers to observe the effect of the COVID pandemic.

The study especially focused on the ratios of CO to CO₂ (carbon dioxide) observed by the mobile labs. These two gasses are co-emitted from fossil fuel combustion and their ratio is an indicator of the efficiency of that combustion since efficient internal combustion engines would convert more of the fuel to CO₂ instead of CO. The more CO emitted relative to CO₂, the less efficiently the fuel is being burned.

Technology for oxidizing atmospheric methane?

January 21, 2025

One recent proposal seeks to infuse the atmosphere with hydrogen peroxide, insisting that it would both oxidize methane (CH₄), an extremely potent greenhouse gas while improving air quality.

Too good to be true?

Jessica Haskins. Credit Todd Anderson

Alfred Mayhew. Credit Todd Anderson

University of Utah atmospheric scientists Alfred Mayhew and Jessica Haskins were skeptical, so they set out to test the claims behind this proposal. Their results, published on Jan. 3, confirm their doubts and offer a reality check to agencies considering such proposals as a way to stave off climate change.

“Our work showed that the efficiency of the proposed technology was quite low, meaning widespread adoption of the technology would be required to make any meaningful impact on atmospheric CH₄,” said Mayhew, a postdoctoral researcher with the U’s Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy. “Then, our results indicate that if this technology is adopted at scale, then we start to see some negative air-quality side effects, particularly for wintertime particulate matter air pollution.”

To conduct the study, the Utah scientists modeled what would happen if you deployed the technology patented by a Canadian company, which is proposing to spray aerosolized hydrogen peroxide, or H₂O₂, into the atmosphere during daylight hours from 600-meter towers. These towers would approach the height of the world’s tallest radio towers.

Read the full article by Brian Maffly in @ TheU.
This story also appeared in Space Daily, Eureka Alert, Science Blog. and Securities.io.

Science with high honors

Katie Nawrath, Biogeochemist

>> Next Letter Coming soon<<

Keeping Seal Taggers safe

Mick Stapleton, field safety officer

>> Next Letter<<

Deck operations

Stephen Boddy, Deck Operations

>> Next Letter<<

the West’s latest air quality threats

A new Dust Bowl?

Dust in the Wind: How cities alter natural airborne particles

Salt Lake's locally sourced dust pollution carries far more hazardous elements than natural dust blown in from Great Basin.

Breaking the Ice

shipping container labs

the balloon people

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Letters from Antarctica

Check back later for the next letter!

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The Voyage Begins

Getting my sea legs

Pre-voyage prep

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An emissions tale of two cities: SLC vs. LA

They may both be Olympic host cities, but Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, the major population hubs of their respective states, are many different places. However, they both experience poor air quality and share valley topography that traps pollutants during weather inversions.

tech for oxidizing atmospheric methane?

As the atmosphere continues to fill with greenhouse gases from human activities, many proposals have surfaced to “geoengineer” climate-saving solutions, that is, alter the atmosphere at a global scale to either reduce the concentrations of carbon or mute its warming effect.

Too good to be true?