May 16: Power!
We have been having difficulties powering the big compressor used to fill up the high pressure cylinders. Most of our instruments work on Canadian 110V, but the compressor needs European 220V, and our transformer is not quite strong enough. As a result, the pumps would stop in the middle of filling the cylinders, which is very frustrating. Today, we finally got our hands on a European 220V generator, and managed to fill the tank fully for the first time. Our situation is complicated somewhat by the fact that we want to sample air as far away from any source of pollution as possible, and generators definitely pollute the air. So we need long (long long long) extension cords to make sure that the generator exhaust would not get anywhere near our samples. But we did not pack enough 220V extension cords. Today, as the deep drilling operations stopped, we were able to borrow some of their gear, and make our compressor work.
It’s exciting, because the high pressure measurements will be used by Thomas Röckmann at IMAU in the Netherlands to study methane clumped isotopes, a measurement that has only been tried once in firn air, and could solve puzzles about the sources of the increase in methane in the atmosphere. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, second after CO2, that contributes to warming the Earth, and we still don’t fully understand all the sources and sinks responsible for the recent dramatic increase in methane in the atmosphere.
Some information about Methane: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/methane/?intent=121
Thomas Röckmann’s research group: https://www.projects.science.uu.nl/atmosphereclimate/index.php
