So, here at the South Pole, we have the cleanest air on Earth. Literally. We have an area on station known as the Clean Air Sector, which belongs to NOAA. The area is completely off limits, on the ground and overhead. NOAA samples this air, and compares it to other Clean Air Sectors, worldwide.
I was lucky enough to get a tour by one of our scientists out there on Friday. I have posted a few articles, which will explain everything much better than I could type it out. The first link is very informative with what is measured here.
At the end, I got take samples of our air, and bottle it up. A bit cheesy I suppose, but at the same time really neat! 2 NOAA scientists are hired every year, and winter over.
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| The NOAA building |
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| A few things to note here: 1- these are the only windows that "open" and close on station. They are sorta freezer door'ish, which is how all of our door are on station. Scientists use these windows to open and sample air, even in the dead of winter at -100+. 2- the picture on the window was taken a few years ago. Those are the Southern Lights above the NOAA building. Lovely, lovely photo! |
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| This is scientific equipment from NASA. It shoots a beam out the window and reflects on a mirror up to space. They measure cloud height, and is very precise given our clean air. |
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| A hard to read graph that depicts the South Pole having the cleanest air on the planet. |
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| Device used to measure CO2. |
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| The long walk back to the station. Flag poles in place to note the path. |
Nothing cheesy about taking air samples! you are so lucky to experience something that was meant to be just that!The cleanest air on this planet...wow! too cool!!! That could very well be the closet thing to the fountain of youth LoL....those links were great! Very Informative.I am guessing the EPA and Texas air-check dose not exist at the South pole :P So what is the deal with global warming? what have you heard? is it something real or just fear factor?-- Marlon.
ReplyDeleteYou'll need that bottle when the space balls show up! I kid. Very cool stuff. Paul.
ReplyDeleteHey Christina, looking at the pictures and reading your blogs tell me one thing - you are having one heck of a good time!!!! Way to go. The information about air quality there makes me curious. I know the temp can get down to -100+ which, of course, makes it difficult to breathe, but, can the pureness of the air make it difficult to breathe? We, as the human race, are rarely exposed to clean air and we get use to breathing all of the crap in our environment. Do they have info about that or a way to test? Info from here: Kevin hurt his hip and doc said he had some inflammation from bursitis - He was off work for a few days. He didn't limp he was hopping. It would have been funny if I hadn't known he was hurting. He has also had 2 colds and eye infection in last 6 wks. (thank goodness I haven't caught any of it. I told him 'Welcome to your 50s'. He DOES NOT like being 50! He seems to be all better now. I had back surgery 3 weeks ago (I had 2 locations that the spinal column had closed and nerves were pinched off). Most of the surgical pain is under control, my legs are feeling way better, however, the back pain is still there. Doc couldn't really say for sure that would get better - arthritis doesn't go away. I'll probably be off another 3-5 wks. Thats about all I got now. Take care, we'll talk again.
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