Tuesday, July 22, 2008

ARCTIC HAZE



The Research vessel Knorr carried scientists 7,394 nautical miles in a six week expedition from Cape Cod to the Arctic. They were to analyse a reddish-brown fog, a mix of dust, black carbon and chemical polltants which was first reported by pilots in the late 1950s. With little springtime rain to clear the air, it tends to float for weeks over parts of the Northern Pole.



At the start of the voyage, the scientists took air samples in Long Island Sound to analyse pollution from New York City. Knorr skirted the edge of the Arctic ice pack to let scientists take air samples. This gathering of current concentrations of pollutants is to provide baseline information to gauge future changes. The more polar ice melts, the more ships will use the open water as a shortcut to save on fuel costs and that means more pollution in the future.

Sailing off the northern tip of Norway and Russia, they also measured air quality near coastal smelters. They even sampled the exhaust from a fleet of Norwegian fishing boats.

The Knorr got far enough north to measure the Arctic haze where the highest concentrations of particulate sulfate were measured along the edge of the ice-pack.




Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute operates three ships and it's the job of Liz Caporelli as ship scheduler to make sure the scientists have everything on board the right ship for their research, make sure the ship is in the right area of ocean and at the best time of year. When the ship leaves, she serves as an on shore liason.

She stated off at the University of Rhode Island in mechanical engineering and after taking a few classes in marine science decided she was more interested in the environment and fisheries.

To earn money for college she had summer jobs as a deckhand on commercial fishng vessels including lobster boats on Rhode Island. At the time, fishing was a dangerous occupation and women generally didn't fish.

From Rhode Island she went on to science-and environmental-focused jobs in Bermuda, California, Maine, cruises in the Arabian Sea and Antarctica then to Woods Hole.


She says, "I think that science is really important. I admire scientists; they work really hard, and sometimes for their whole life, to get to sea. So I want to make that happen."

13 comments:

Brian Hughes said...

Whoa...Liz Caporell is a definite babe!

Lord Sedgwick said...

... but sadly, frigid.

Brian Hughes said...

Only with you, Sedge.

River said...

Interesting job that girl's got. Puts me to shame she does.
Then again, she's worked REALLY hard to get where she is and I know I'm much too lazy to do much more than my feeble checkout-chook job.

Lord Sedgwick said...

Yeah Broyan, but with the help of climate change and global warming I reckon I might be in with a chance.

(Well, it's her or the next available good looking polar bear floating lonely as a cloud on an iceberg.)

R.H. said...

There'd be global change if RH nabbed her up there!

(You bet!)

bella bella bella
woo! woo! woo!
I'm just the fella
To fire your flue!

ha ha ha!

ROBBERT!!!!!

Ann ODyne said...

ARCTIC?
after the ice floes and ravines ...
don't suppose you could post on WARMER themes since it is freezing here and we need distraction.

The Editor said...

So, that's it, is it? A testosterone tsunami?

JahTeh said...

Fleetwood, you're supposed to be looking at her intellect not the babe bits.

MiLord, you always told me your hotness would melt steel. Disappointed I am, again.

River, I'm with you in the shaming.
We could always use the excuse that in our day, we weren't encouraged enough. I could have been a great geologist.

Rh, her mind is brilliant.
Men always looking at the babe bits.

Done, Annie O. Next post is droolworthy.

I can't do a thing with them Bear, testosterone levels rise with the cold it seems.

R.H. said...

Damn right!- I wake up with a hard on every morning, then have to wave it around in the cold before I can take a leak!

R.H. said...

-Too much information?

Maybe.


And not enough for some.

River said...

Weren't encouraged enough? Heck, I wasn't encouraged at all. Here's how it went. Girls go to school until they're old enough to leave. then they work for a while until someone wants to marry them. Then they stay home and have babies and look after the house. It NEVER occured to me to question any of this.

JahTeh said...

Rh, not enough information. How high can you pole vault? How many times have you won the three-legged race to the dunny?

Yes River, I can still hear the roar of laughter as I answered "What do you want to do for a job?"