Directory

Start date:
Early January
End date:
Mid February
Locations:
McMurdo Station area AWS sites
Principle Investigator:
Dr Linnea Avallone
Organisation:
University of Colorado
Field season overview:
A group of three scientists will assemble and test six ozone instrument packages in Crary Lab (four for deployment and two spares), and deploy them to the following AWS locations: Cape Byrd, Marble Point, Minna Bluff, and Linda. In addition to the Ozone instruments, autonomous power systems will be assembled and tested in the Crary Lab, then broken down and deployed via helicopter to the AWS sites listed above. Some initial testing of the system may be carried out on the sea ice in the local vicinity of McMurdo Station. During the installation of the ozone instruments, voice communications will be required with a team member at McMurdo Station to ascertain correct function of the instruments and telemetry system. Once deployed, the instruments will collect data and relay it back to McMurdo Station via FreeWave radio modem.
The Antarctic troposphere has the least anthropogenically influenced surface air on Earth and presents a unique opportunity for the study of naturally occurring processes that control the chemical composition of our atmosphere. Of particular interest to the study of high-latitude atmospheric chemistry is tropospheric ozone (O3), which exhibits predictable seasonal variations as well as poorly understood anomalies at polar sunrise. During the 2011-2012 summer, researchers will instrument the four Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in the Ross Island region to measure year-long variations in ozone to develop a climatology of boundary layer ozone.