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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.

How snowflakes get their intricate shape

January 13, 2025

From stars to needles to amorphous globs, scientists are demystifying a snowflake’s complex construction — showing how factors such as temperature can influence their shape. Some researchers have already observed how a warming world can drive structural changes, including flakes that melt quicker, fall faster and gravitate toward specific shapes.

“Snowflakes are far more varied and interesting than we had previously imagined,” said Tim Garrett, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Utah.

The science of snowflake shapes

Tim Garrett

The creation of all snowflakes begins with liquid water droplets in a cloud. As the temperature dips below freezing, some cloud droplets begin to freeze around dust particles in the sky and form hexagonal crystals. All snowflakes are six-sided because water molecules bond with one another in a hexagonal lattice.

A crystal begins to grow by absorbing water vapor from the surrounding air. Other liquid droplets evaporate, adding more water vapor that the crystals can tap into to grow larger. As the crystals get bigger and heavier, they start to fall.

In the 1930s, Japanese physicist Ukichiro Nakaya — who famously described snowflakes as “letters from heaven” — created the first artificial snowflake and found that different snowflakes form under different conditions.

But why do certain shapes appear at different temperatures? Growing snowflakes in his lab, Libbrecht uncovered processes that help explain this decades-long mystery.

For example, at different temperatures, flat, smooth surfaces — called facets — can appear around the crystal on certain sides. Imagine an even glossy surface like on a diamond face but on ice.

Water molecules have a hard time sticking to these flat surfaces because there are less available chemical bonds to connect to. As a result, these facets act like shields and prevent crystals from growing in certain directions.

If these smooth surfaces are on the top and bottom (called basal facets) of the crystal, the snowflake is more likely to grow as a column or needle. If they are set up around the sides of the hexagon (called prism facets), then the snowflake is more likely to grow as a plate.

But our warming world is also influencing how snowflakes — including the most common ones — form.

“That’s all going on at once. It takes about 100,000 droplets to make a good sized snowflake,” said Ken Libbrecht, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology and snowflake consultant for the movie “Frozen.” The process can take about 30 to 45 minutes.

Read the full Washington Post article which features three-dimensional animations of snowflake architecture.

Thomas Gurbach: The Great Power of Nature

October 29, 2024

In this part of the country there is no such thing as persistence forecasts. Amongst all the changes in the weather when I was there, one day stands out. While sitting in the fork of a neighbor’s tree, as nine-year-olds will do, I recall the warm, still air being interrupted by a circling wind leading to the strong rustling of leaves. The sky had turned an eerie gray green followed by lightning and thunder. A tornado was passing nearby.

In that moment I felt the great power of nature.

Two-story barracks

The old meteorology building in WWII barracks on the campus of the University of Utah.

In the mid 70s I took the opportunity to pursue my fascination with the weather along with a desire to work as either a pilot or in aerospace by studying meteorology at the University of Utah. Although other universities were closer to home, the U provided a strong academic program and was more affordable.

I really enjoyed Utah and the U. In those days Salt Lake City still had a frontier feel to it. The Browning Building almost seemed new, and our weather forecast lab was in a building that appeared to be a two-story, WWII-era barracks. Instead of air conditioning it had a swamp cooler, and the weather maps came across on a thermal printer. Weather station data came by teletype machine.

The faculty in the department, now Atmospheric Sciences, was outstanding, a veritable international “who’s who” of meteorology. Shih Kung Kao was department chair joined by Jan and Julia Paegle and a visiting professor, Wilford Zdunkowski. Most impactful to me was Kuo Nan Liou, our professor for atmospheric physics. He provided me student work within his areas of research. These experiences reinforced my learning objectives while helping me with college expenses. I also benefitted from a quarterly grant from Kennecott Copper. (Yes, back in the 70s, the U was on a quarter schedule and the Department of Meteorology was part of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences).

An applied science

Meteorology truly is an applied science. In addition to the core calculus and physics courses, the weather classes directly apply the concepts from math and science coursework. For my career, the ability to add classes in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, computer science / numerical methods and statistics and probability enabled my career work in aerospace.

I hired on with Rockwell North American Aircraft, working modeling and simulation within the defense operations research group. My career path evolved to military aircraft requirements / effectiveness analysis, future aircraft design team participation and various project management / leadership roles in design and development. Subsequently, Rockwell Defense was acquired by The Boeing Company where my career culminated in leading the Advance Airlift and Tanker organization.

Our team designed aerodynamic fairings and rugged composite landing gear door upgrades for the C-17 transport. Our responsibilities also included development of concepts for future airlift and tanker aircraft and supporting technology maturation in lightweight, high strength structures and aerodynamic technologies. Highlights included our teams’ participation in the X-31 VECTOR and X-48B flight demonstration programs.

I have never regretted my decision to leave Ohio for the Mountain West to pursue my education which launched my career. For the past few years, I have been contributing to the U’s Atmospheric Sciences Department and, more recently, to the department’s new home, the L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building, slated to open next year. It’s my way of paying back the support I received while attending the U.

Bringing together minds and resources for a greener tomorrow

October 11, 2024

With an ever-growing population in city, suburban, and rural areas, the Beehive State and region’s economic potential is growing.

But the climate challenges Utah and neighboring states face pose dire consequences for the environment and the region’s residents and businesses. The exposed lakebed of the Great Salt Lake; droughts causing water shortages and shrinking lakes; and vast air pollution from wildfire smoke are just some of the challenges being seen.

The climate challenges Utah and the region face are a threat, but these challenges can also drive innovation and create a robust workforce.

Recently, the University of Utah hosted the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE) Site Visit highlighting the achievements of the first year of this project. SWSIE is a new National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded program which includes academic, community, nonprofit and industry partners across Arizona, Nevada and Utah to establish the region as a leader in water security, renewable energy, and carbon management, and develop a workforce to support those high-wage industries.

The multi-day site visit showcased Utah’s efforts to make the state and the region a hub of green innovation. Some of the highlights of the event included field trips that spanned the watershed, examples of regional collaboration, partner engagement, building an ecosystem throughout the region, and workforce development, among other topics.

A key component of the NSF Engines program is to leverage existing partnerships and coordinate efforts among researchers, industry, and government to accelerate the pace of sustainability innovation and prepare a regional workforce.

“With SWSIE, we are able to accelerate the speed that things are happening,” said Dr. Brenda Bowen, Co-PI on the SWSIE project and serves as the University of Utah lead. “Even though we are acting so fast, it needs to be faster. There’s this urgency to it, and that so aligns with the urgency of the issues that we’re facing around climate. That’s an exciting thing that SWSIE can bring, that additional incentive to really accelerate things.”

New models shed light on sea ice dynamics

October 2, 2024

It is far from a homogenous layer of frozen water on the ocean’s surface, but rather a dynamic mix of water and ice, as well as minute pockets of air and brine encased in the ice.

New research led by University of Utah mathematicians and climate scientists is generating fresh models for understanding two critical processes in the sea ice system that have profound influences on global climate: the flux of heat through sea ice, thermally linking the ocean and atmosphere, and the dynamics of the marginal ice zone, or MIZ, a serpentine region of the Arctic sea ice cover that separates dense pack ice from open ocean.

In the last four decades since satellite imagery became widely available, the width of the MIZ has grown by 40% and its northern edge has migrated 1,600 kilometers northward, according to Court Strong, a professor of atmospheric sciences.

A tale of two studies, one north and one south

Ice covering both polar regions has sharply receded in recent decades thanks to human-driven global warming. Its disappearance is also driving a feed-back loop where more of the sun energy’s is absorbed by the open ocean, rather than getting reflected back to space by ice cover.

Utah mathematics professors Elena Cherkaev and Ken Golden, a leading sea ice researcher, are authors on both studies. The Arctic study led by Strong examines the macrostructures of sea ice, while the Antarctic study, led by former Utah postdoctoral researcher Noa Kraitzman, gets into its micro-scale aspects.

How Harmful is Great Salt Lake Dust? U Scientists Investigate

September 18, 2024

Researchers from the University of Utah, including atmospheric scientist Kevin Perry and biologist Michael Werner, are attempting to get a handle on this question and the latest findings are concerning.

Sediments in the lake’s exposed playa are potentially more harmful than other major dust sources affecting the Wasatch Front’s air quality, according to a study published online recently in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

NBC News Dust researcher Kevin Perry poses with his fat bike and a PI-SWERL machine, which can measure wind erosion and dust emission.
Photo credit: Evan Bush

“You’re talking about a very large dust source located next to a very large population, and you’ve got elevated levels of manganese, iron, copper and lead. Lead is a concern for developmental reasons,” said senior author Kerry Kelly, a professor of chemical engineering. “Manganese, iron and copper, these are transition metals and are known to be very irritating to your lungs. Once you get irritation, that can lead to this whole inflammatory response. And that’s part of the problem with particulate matter and it’s adverse health effects like asthma.”

Another recent study led by sociology professor Sara Grineski found dust from the lakebed disproportionately affects disadvantaged neighborhoods in Salt Lake County.

In a separate forthcoming study led by U biologist Michael Werner’s lab, another team of researchers characterized levels of toxic metals deposited in submerged lakebed sediments sampled during the lake’s record low-water year of 2021, noting how these levels have changed since the years of Utah’s mining era.

To conduct the published study, Kerry Kelly’s lab, which specializes in air quality, teamed up with researchers in the U’s College of Science. They examined previously collected sediment samples from the Great Salt Lake, comparing them with sediments from other dust sources in the Great Basin, namely Sevier Lake, Fish Springs Lake and West Desert in western Utah and Tule Lake in northeastern California. These places are known to contribute to dust pollution reaching Salt Lake City.

In recent years, co-author Kevin Perry, a professor of atmospheric sciences, has systematically gathered exposed lakebed sediments, logging hundreds of miles on a bike. His prior research has identified “hotspots” on the playa that appear to be enriched with potentially toxic elements.

Breaking the Ice

shipping container labs

the balloon people

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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?

How snowflakes get their intricate shapes

Snowflakes are like letters from the sky, each crystal a note describing the atmosphere as it falls to the ground. They float effortlessly, but their creation is one of nature’s most complicated physics feats.

The science of snowflake shapes

Thomas Gurbach: The great Power of Nature

Growing up in Northern Ohio provided exposure to a wide variety of weather phenomena including summer squalls off Lake Erie and lake effect snows.

Two-story barracks

An applied science

Bringing together minds and resources for a greener tomorrow

From the headwaters of the Wasatch to the threatened Great Salt Lake, Utah is rich in beauty, environmental opportunities, and stories of sustainability innovation.

New models shed light on sea ice dynamics

Polar sea ice is ever-changing. It shrinks, expands, moves, breaks apart, reforms in response to changing seasons, and rapid climate change.

A tale of two studies, one north and one south

How Harmful is Great Salt Lake Dust? U Scientists Investigate

As Utah’s Great Salt Lake shrinks, exposing more of its playa, concerns grow about the dust the dry lakebed emits. But scientists lack the data to fully understand what pollutants are present in these airborne sediments.

Bringing together minds and resources for
a greener tomorrow

How Harmful is Great Salt Lake Dust?
U Scientists Investigate