That's a Wrap!

56 total days in Alaska, 33 days in the dark, 12 crates of supplies, 2 days of packing, and 1 day away from arriving home to Michigan! Please enjoy this picture journey of the 3 hours it took to move our instruments and crates into storage for the holidays before their transport back to Michigan:

Last day in the CakeEater Shed. Everything is packed!

We had to pack the ATOFMS in the opposite order that we unpacked. This meant putting the ATOFMS into its crate on the street!

Picking up the crate from storage

 Soon, the ATOFMS’ livelihood will rest in the arms of this forklift

It took 5 men to lift the ATOFMS onto a sled:

My heart stopping as I thought this was the end of the ATOFMS

The ATOFMS right before it went for a ride down 3 steps

Now we meet the crate at the side of the street. Unfortunately for us, it’s -3^oF outside and winds of 18 mph. My phone couldn’t take it and defiantly shut itself off despite having full battery. Luckily, all went well. We were able to make one trip and everything made it to storage safely.

The last photo I was able to take before my phone died from the cold

3 hours later. Jun’s phone comes back alive for one last picture:

All packed. All moved. All done!

A big THANK YOU to UIC-Science for all their help moving and solving logistical problems along the way and the Department of Energy Early Career and ARM Programs for housing us and funding the APUN study. We collected plenty of interesting data, and hopefully, we’ll be able to share our findings with you all soon!

Jamy Lee, Pratt Lab PhD student

CHEM 125-Snow on umich.edu homepage!

Our introductory chemistry lab course involving a semester-long authentic research experience in Arctic snow chemistry is featured today on the www.umich.edu homepage!

Michigan News article: https://engaged.umich.edu/news-features/properties-of-arctic-snow-not-your-typical-1st-year-chemistry-experiment/

Bringing a Piece of Home to Utqiagvik, AK

After snoozing my alarm for the fifth time, it is hard to believe that it is 8 am. Opening the blinds, I do a double take between my phone and the outside world. Am I sure it isn’t the middle of the night? With one streetlight illuminating the vicinity, I can barely make out the buildings next to us. It is pitch black outside. If we are lucky today, we might see a slight glimmer of sunlight around noon. With two cups of coffee in and more cups of tea waiting back at the duplex, Jun and I embark on one of three trips per day to the aptly named Cakeeater shed. With the pleasant humming of the instruments ringing in my head, there is one pertinent question that I must ask Jun, “What’s for dinner?”  

A glimmer of Sunlight at 11 AM 12/02/2018

Between deciphering error messages on the instruments and peeking outside for a glimpse of sunlight, food has brought us comfort during the darkest days (literally). During the downtime, I’m watching the food network as I hunch over a laptop analyzing our mass spectra from the previous day. I make mental notes of my favorite meals before strolling through the only large grocery store with fresh vegetables in Utqiagvik. Surprisingly, the Alaska Commercial Company is fully stocked with a bounty of options. You can even find exotic ingredients like bok choy and okra. The prices are vastly different than what we would expect from Ann Arbor, MI but by now we don’t blink twice at grabbing a $7 loaf of bread.

Returning to the duplex with hundreds of dollars in groceries, the difficult question arises again, what’s for dinner? There are about 8 charming restaurants in the area but nothing beats a home-cooked meal. We could make a hearty chili using the instant pot provided for us, or a taste of Thanksgiving with a green bean casserole, or pancakes and bacon because we are adults! Though our main concern is keeping our instruments functional, we have spent the downtime during the past 6 weeks perfecting our culinary skills. From cooking the perfect 135°F medium rare steak to watching bread rise, I now feel as comfortable cooking as I do tuning the aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS). With 25 mph winds and more darkness ahead of us, we light a match to turn on the gas stove.    

A few of our home cooked meals

Today, I make something that reminds us both of home: wonton soup. Wrapping tiny spoonfuls of meat into a paper-thin wrapper brings back nostalgic childhood memories of waking up early Christmas morning to make wontons with my mom. With the darkness and wind whispering for us to stay indoors, this will always bring us comfort and warmth. With this meal, we bring a little bit of home to our new home in Utqiagvik.

A bowl of hearty, homemade wonton soup

- Jamy Lee, Pratt Lab Ph.D. Student part of the APUN study in Utqiagvik, AK

Care package to Jamy & Jun!

Pratt Lab group members Jamy Lee and Jun Liu have been in Utqiagvik, Alaska since Oct. 28, and the sun went down for winter, with Polar Night beginning on Nov. 18. Jamy and Jun have been doing a great job keeping the ATOFMS going, while frequently dealing with getting stuck in snowbanks when going to/from the lab! It's been dark for quite a while, so the Pratt Lab decided to send them a care package! USPS flat rate shipments work to send mail to Utqiagvik, as long as you're patient! So, "3-day" shipping took 1 week, which is actually really fast for all the way to the North Slope of Alaska! They sent us the following photos of their excitement, with the message: "We received the package today! Thank you guys so much! These will keep us sane through the never-ending darkness!"

Jamy excited about Sriracha and socks! "Photos taken at 12:30 pm. Not much daylight as usual."

Jun enjoying his "Keep It Cool" socks!

Beautiful Northern Lights (Photo credit: Jun Liu)

Holiday Party!

Pratt Lab holiday party joint with the Ault Lab - celebrating another successful semester!

Northern Lights!

Northern Lights over our lab on the Alaskan Arctic tundra (Photo credit: Jun Liu)

Wintertime sea spray aerosol!

Waves crashing at the snow-covered shore at Utqiagvik, AK - wintertime Arctic sea spray aerosol! Fall sea ice freeze-up is severely delayed in recent years, leading to storms eroding the coastline. A local noted sadly that the beach where she had played as a child had been washed away in recent years.

Aurora Borealis!

Beautiful Aurora Borealis in Utqiagvik, AK! A great reward for Pratt Lab post-doc and PhD student after a long day of Arctic fieldwork!

Mass Spectrometry in the Arctic!

Pratt Lab postdoc Jun Liu & PhD student Jamy Lee have been working hard to get our #MassSpec ready for Arctic aerosol sampling on the tundra!

Sunrise on the Arctic tundra!

The start of our Alaskan aerosol field campaign!

The Pratt Lab has started our Department of Energy Early Career & ARM field campaign APUN (Aerosols during the Polar Utqiaġvik Night; apun means 'snow on ground' in Iñupiaq)! Significant delays in fall sea ice freeze-up in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are reducing winter sea ice extent and resulting in thinning sea ice prone to fracturing. However, the majority of recent Arctic aerosol observations have been made through intensive spring/summer field campaigns, with few measurements in the fall-winter. This observational gap is limiting our understanding of the spatial and temporal variability in the Arctic aerosol population, as recognized by current international efforts focused on improving understanding and prediction of the Polar Regions (e.g., Year of Polar Prediction, International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project activity CATCH (Cryosphere and Atmospheric Chemistry)). The APUN field campaign will improve our understanding of atmospheric aerosol sources, composition, and processes during the early Polar night. Pratt Lab PhD student Jamy Lee and post-doc Jun Liu are working hard to get our instruments ready to start sampling on the Arctic tundra!

Welcome Madeline, Nikki, and Brady!

Welcome graduate rotation students Madeline Cooke, Nikki Woodall, and Brady Anderson! Madeline received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nikki received her B.S. (Biochemistry & Biology) and M.S. (Chemistry) degrees from Ball State University. Brady received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Saint Thomas (in St. Paul, MN). Welcome to the Pratt Lab!

A Day at the North Pole

We spent several days breaking ice, which is quite a sensory experience – a cacophony of smashing, grinding, and growling accompanied by massive vibrations as this 100 m long, 10,000 ton ship slides over meter thick ice and crushes it, sending chunks of ice past the propellers and around the sides of the ship while traveling at a steady speed of 3 knots. But now, on Aug 12, we made it. We were all waiting in anticipation as we slowly traveled farther north. Past latitudes 86, 87, 88, 89! deg N, every day taking me further north than I have ever been before. Our main goal was the search for the perfect ice floe on which to set up our sampling station for 5 weeks of science. But as we past 88 deg, and then 89, it became apparent that we were nearing the North Pole. And when you’re that close, you have to go!

We paused for 24 hours at the pole, situated around 89 deg 58’ , for a North Pole science station. This was about 5 miles away from THE pole, blocked by a massive ice floe, but when you’re that close, you’ve made it.

We collected genuine North Pole water for an experiment, sampled genuine North Pole air, and even tasted genuine North Pole ice (refreshing, and slightly salty).

This was also the perfect opportunity to get a group photo on the ice in front of Oden.

Then we got to celebrate! The captain invited everyone to a toast on the ship’s bridge, followed by a 3-course dinner (and yes, we all had to dress up!) It was an opportunity to take a break from the science and step back, enjoying what a unique experience this is, and how lucky we all are to be a part of it. Not many people can say they’ve been to the North Pole (and on my first trip to the Arctic, no less!). And now I get to publish future papers with North Pole data, how neat!

The view from the North Pole always changes, since it is all covered by sea ice!

- Rachel Kirpes, Pratt Lab PhD student on the Oden

Rachel at the North Pole!

Pratt Lab PhD student Rachel Kirpes reached the North Pole on the Swedish Icebreaker Oden! Let's learn about connections between sea ice, microbiology, aerosols, and clouds! #arcticocean2018

https://polarforskningsportalen.se/en/arctic/expeditions/arctic-ocean-2018/blogs/nordpolen-2

Photo by Lars Lehnert

Entering the Ice

Less than two days after departing from Longyearbyen, we reached the marginal ice zone (MIZ), where the first small bits of sea ice appear in the water. Being at sea, on such a large ship, is full of noises. The Oden, being an icebreaker, isn’t designed for open water. So the first leg of our journey was full of sound and movement as the ship swayed back and forth, vibrating as it crashed through waves. Along with the gentle swaying, the ship tends to sing – the noises were curiously in tune, like an ethereal orchestra accompanying our expedition.

But once we reached even the first bit of ice, the sound and movement suddenly changed. The rocking stopped, the ship was much steadier surrounded by ice, and all of a sudden it was much quieter. At this point, experiencing such a drastic change, and looking outside to see ice moving all around us, it was very clear that we were now in the Arctic.

We paused in the MIZ for a 24 hour intensive sampling period. This was very busy as everyone was working hard to run instruments and conduct experiments only two days into the campaign. But this station was essential – in order to establish a reference, in an area with open water and some sea ice, to compare to our measurements once we got deep into the pack ice. Sea ice defines the uniqueness of the Arctic environment – impacting the ocean and atmosphere physics, biology, chemistry, and meteorology.

As our science commenced, the novelty of our environment was never lost to me, that we are in the Arctic Ocean, surrounded by sea ice, looking out over a landscape that could be another world.

 My first views of sea ice!

- Rachel Kirpes, Pratt Lab PhD student on the Oden!

Adventures in Longyearbyen

Completing the transit from Helsingborg, we arrived at Longyearbyen, Svalbard on July 28. This gave us a couple days to get off the ship and explore before everyone joined for the official start of the expedition. I made sure to enjoy my last chance to be on land for 8 weeks.

Longyearbyen is on the Svalbard archipelago, and is known for polar bears, mountains, and a history of coal mining. Now, the town is a main tourist hub for outdoor adventuring. And also claims the northern most brewery in the world!

There are great mountain views right from town. Also a good spot to watch for Arctic terns!  

Longyearbyen is located on a fjord and right up to the mountains. Great place to start an outdoor adventure. But as soon as you leave town, everyone is strongly advised to bring bear protection!

But we’re not removed from the world yet – even at 78 deg N, Longyearbyen has a Radisson hotel! While we were in town, we also enjoyed our last chance to have internet access before continuing on the cruise.

Disembarking the ship for an afternoon in town also provided a great opportunity to get a photo of Oden, our home for these 10 weeks.

Once the full science team was onboard, excitement about the upcoming expedition took over. After leaving Longyearbyen on Aug 1, next stop: Marginal Ice Zone!

- Rachel Kirpes, Pratt Lab PhD student on the Oden!

Hello from the Arctic!

I departed the U.S. on July 8 at the start of an adventure that has taken me through Sweden, on a ship north to Svalbard, and then continuing north, north, further north…

The majority of this time will be spent aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden, as part of a joint scientific venture between the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) to support the Arctic Ocean 2018 campaign. Most of the scientific work onboard is being conducted under the umbrella of the MOCCHA campaign (Microbiology – Ocean – Cloud Coupling in the High Arctic). Research groups from the U.S., Sweden, and across Europe are all studying different aspects of the complex Arctic climate, including air-sea exchange, aerosol physics and chemistry, bubble physics, sea ice biology, seawater chemistry, meteorology, and much more. It is an exciting, unique opportunity to collaborate with many great scientists in order to better understand the Arctic.

Most of the science team gathered in Helsingborg, Sweden in early July to meet Oden in port for “mobilization”. This was a wild, busy four days of unpacking, organizing, and setting up equipment on the ship to prepare for the expedition. I was lucky enough to then have a week to travel in Sweden and Denmark before returning to the ship in Helsingborg on July 20 for the “transit” to Svalbard. Only a few scientists for this early “preview” of the expedition, allowing us 10 extra days to continue setting up our instrumentation. This included many long days of troubleshooting, machining, cleaning, and rebuilding parts of the sampling set up. But with everyone’s help, it all came together in the end.

The official start of the expedition (or research “cruise” as we like to call it) began in Longyearbyen, Svalbard on Aug 1. There, the rest of the scientists joined the ship, and we were ready to sail north. All together, on the ship we total 23 crew members, 9 SPRS staff, and 41 scientists.

The goal is to travel north into the Arctic Ocean pack ice (aiming for somewhere ~87 – 89 deg N), in order to find a large ice floe to anchor Oden and set up an ice station for scientific measurements. Stay tuned as we continue north and into the ice!

- Rachel Kirpes, Pratt Lab PhD student on the Oden!

Enjoyed some wonderful sunsets during mobilization while working on the 7^th deck (highest part of the ship)

Hit some big waves during the transit!

Enjoyed beautiful weather for most of the transit from Svalbard to Longyearbyen

Icebreaker Oden & Rachel arrive in Longyearbyen!

Pratt Lab PhD student Rachel Kirpes arrives in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway on the Swedish icebreaker Oden after the open ocean cruise from Helsingborg, Sweden!

@rmkirp: Caught a pic of Oden, my home for the next two months for #ArcticOcean2018 while enjoying a day on land in Longyearbyen before heading (further) north.

DOE ARM Early Career Press Release

FOUR NEW DOE EARLY CAREER RESEARCH PROGRAM AWARD WINNERS PLAN TO USE ARM MEASUREMENTS

Summer Group Celebration!

Tonight we celebrated our research success with the Ault Lab!

Icebreaker Oden safety training in the Helsingborg News!

Pratt Lab PhD student Rachel Kirpes is currently in Helsingborg, Sweden on the Swedish Icebreaker Oden preparing instrumentation for the Arctic Ocean 2018 cruise! As part of this, she participated in survival training that involved jumping in the ocean in full safety gear.

Helsingborg News Article:

Rachel ready to jump off the icebreaker!

Icebreaker fire hose training!

Summer Group Photo!

Back row: Stephen McNamara, Dr. Peter Peterson, Rachel Kirpes, Jeff Spencer, Dr. Qianjie Chen
Front row: Prof. Kerri Pratt, REU student Savannah Haas, Jamy Lee, Kathryn Kulju, Dr. Jun Liu
Missing: DRISE student Jasmine Mumpfield, undergrad Claire Mattson

MOSAiC press release and video!

With funding through a DOE Early Career Award, the Pratt Lab will participate in the historic international MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) campaign aboard the German icebreaker Polarstern in the high Arctic from Sept. 2019 - Oct. 2020! Here are recent press releases, articles, and a new video about MOSAiC:

June 2018 AWI MOSAiC Expedition Video Trailer
June 2018 Alfred Wegener Institut Press Release "An Entire Year Trapped in the Arctic Ice"
Oct. 2017 The Atlantic news article "A Year on Ice"
Feb. 2017 BBC News audio clip "Why scientists want their boat to get stuck in Arctic ice"
Feb. 2017 BBC News article "Ice-locked ship to drift over North Pole"

Prof. Pratt receives DOE Early Career Award!

Prof. Pratt was chosen for a 2018 Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Award! This funds the Pratt Lab to study Arctic aerosols during DOE ARM field campaigns in Nov.-Dec. 2018 (polar night) in Utqiagvik, Alaska and during the historic international MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) campaign aboard the German icebreaker Polarstern in the high Arctic from Sept. 2019 - Oct. 2020.

Check out the Univ. of Michigan Chemistry Press Release!

Jun and Jamy perform "surgery" on our ATOFMS!

Welcome to the Pratt Lab! Here are photos of new postdoc Dr. Jun Liu and PhD student Jamy Lee performing "surgery" on our aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS) Maverick!

Welcome Dr. Jun Liu!

Welcome Dr. Jun Liu! Jun recently completed his PhD in Prof. Lynn Russell's group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. He joined the Pratt Lab to learn single-particle mass spectrometry and study Arctic atmospheric aerosols!

Welcome Jasmine!

Welcome Jasmine! Jasmine is participating in the Detroit Research Internship and Summer Experience (D-RISE) program through the University of Michigan Department of Chemistry, and we are excited for her to be part of our lab this summer! Jasmine is a rising senior at Cass Technical High School in inner city Detroit.

New paper published inland sea spray and lake spray aerosol!

Congratulations to Pratt Lab PhD Dr. Nate May, as well as Pratt Lab PhD Dr. Matt Gunsch and PhD student Rachel Kirpes, for their paper published in Environmental Science & Technology Letter titled "Unexpected Contributions of Sea Spray and Lake Spray Aerosol to Inland Particulate Matter". We detected sea spray aerosol in northern Michigan from Hudson Bay, so don't always assume that Na+ is from dust in the summer!

Collaborator Prof. Ault gives radio interview about collaborative HAB aerosol research!

Collaborator Prof. Andrew Ault gave a NPR radio interview about our collaborative harmful algal bloom lake spray aerosol research! Enjoy listening!

Michigan News highlights our HAB aerosol research!

Michigan News highlighted our harmful algal bloom lake spray aerosol research that we've done in collaboration with Prof. Andrew Ault!

Congratulations Rachel!

Pratt Lab PhD student Rachel Kirpes was awarded a Chemistry One-Term Dissertation Fellowship for her research progress and science policy outreach! Congratulations Rachel!!

Rachel participates in AMS Summer Policy Colloquium in DC!

Pratt Lab PhD student Rachel Kirpes was selected and participated in the 2018 American Meteorological Society Summer Policy Colloquium in Washington, DC!

Welcome Jamy, Kathryn, and Savannah!

Welcome Jamy Lee, Kathryn Kulju, and Savannah Haas! Jamy is a third-year Chemistry PhD student who is excited to join the Pratt Lab to pursue Arctic aerosol chemistry research! Kathryn is an incoming Chemistry graduate student completing a summer rotation in the Pratt Lab. Kathryn recently graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Northern Michigan University. Savannah is a junior Biochemistry undergraduate student at Villanova University and undergraduate researcher in our fantastic collaborator Prof. Amanda Grannas' lab. Savannah is participating in the University of Michigan Chemistry REU in the Pratt Lab! We are excited for all of you to be in the lab this summer!

Upcoming joint Swedish-US Arctic cruise - press release and video!

Prof. Pratt is the lead PI of a team of researchers, including Prof. Patricia Matrai (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences), Prof. Amanda Grannas (Villanova Univ.), and Prof. Andrew Ault (Univ. of Michigan), to study primary marine aerosol production in the high Arctic summer! We are one of four US teams funded by that National Science Foundation for the joint Swedish-US cruise to high Arctic aboard the icebreaker Oden during Aug. - Sept. 2018! This cruise, known as "Arctic Ocean 2018" and "MOCCHA: Microbiology-Ocean-Cloud Coupling in the High Arctic"

Swedish Polar Research Secretariat Arctic Ocean 2018 Expedition website

Stockholm University Arctic Ocean 2018 video

Stockholm University MOCCHA press release

Watch for posts here and on the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat Arctic Ocean 2018 blog!

NSF-funded PHOXMELT project workshop in Ann Arbor!

Prof. Pratt organized a numerical modeling workshop in Ann Arbor, MI for our NSF-funded PHOXMELT (Photochemical Halogen and Ozone eXperiment: Mass Exchange in the Lower Troposphere) project! Visitors included Jose Fuentes, Dandan Wei, and Sham Thanekar (Penn State), Paul Shepson and Angela Raso (Purdue), Siyuan Wang (NCAR, former Pratt Lab post-doc), Wes Halfacre (Indiana Univ.-Southeast), and Pratt Lab members Stephen McNamara, Peter Peterson, and Qianjie Chen.

Celebrating the PHOXMELT modeling workshop!

Prof. Pratt co-organizes ALPACA Workshop in Fairbanks, AK

Prof. Pratt co-organized the ALPACA (Alaskan Pollution and Chemical Analysis) Workshop, held in Fairbanks, Alaska from May 14-16, 2018. Prof. Pratt spoke in her role as a working group co-chair of the IGAC (International Global Atmospheric Chemistry) Project activity PACES (Air Pollution in the Arctic: Climate, Environment, and Societies), which sponsored the event, with NSF and IASC (International Arctic Science Committee).


Photo credit: Jingqiu Mao, UAF

Paper published on aerosol growth events in northern Michigan

Congratulations to Pratt Lab PhD Dr. Matt Gunsch, as well as PhD student Nate May and UMBS REU student Stephanie Schmidt, on their paper published in Atmospheric Environment titled "Particle growth in an isoprene-rich forest: Influences of urban, wildfire, and biogenic air masses."

Congratulations to the new Dr. Nate May!

Congratulations to the second Pratt Lab Ph.D. - Dr. Nate May!! Today he defended his dissertation titled "Atmospheric Particle Production from Freshwater and Oceanic Wave-breaking", where he discussed his research involving lake spray aerosol, sea spray aerosol, and chemical education.

Alexa, Guy, & Kate graduate!

Congratulations to Alexa Watson, Guy Burke, and Kate Hogan, Pratt Lab undergrads graduating from the University of Michigan! Alexa is heading to the Univ. of California, Irvine to pursue a PhD in Chemistry, and Guy is heading to the Univ. of California, Davis to pursue a PhD in Atmospheric Science.

Guy Burke & Prof. Pratt

Prof. Pratt and Alexa Watson