Arctic Research

Beautiful sunrises and sunsets that last for hours!

Prof. Kerri Pratt digging a snow pit

Purdue University graduate students Angela Raso & Kyle Custard happy about their successful experiment!

"Cakeater Lab" out on the tundra

Polar Sunrise!

The sun rose today in Barrow!  The residents of Barrow hadn’t seen the sun for over two months!  We saw it for less than one hour, but it was beautiful!

Saluting the sun!

Prof. Kerri Pratt

Here's where we sleep:

It's a hut in the former Naval Arctic Research Lab!

Barrow, Alaska!

I (Prof. Kerri Pratt) arrived Tuesday night to pitch dark skies in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost point in the U.S.  Having spent two months here in “spring” 2012 for the NASA BRomine, Ozone, and Mercury EXperiment, I am excited to be back!  I am here to help Prof. Paul Shepson’s graduate students Kyle Custard and Angela Raso from Purdue University.  They are conducting experiments using their chemical ionization mass spectrometer to study unique halogen chemistry that only occurs in the atmosphere and snowpacks of the Polar Regions.  While I am here, I am also sampling atmospheric particles and snow for further analysis back at the University of Michigan.

While the sun was technically supposed to rise here for the first time in two months, it is cloudy with blowing snow.  Kyle and Angela have been here since the beginning of January and have yet to see the sun, even though it gets a little lighter for an hour or two in the middle of the afternoon.

Today I set up a microorifice uniform deposit impactor (MOUDI), borrowed from Prof. Andrew Ault’s group, to sample atmospheric particles for later chemical analysis.  Attaching the aerosol inlet into our “lab” on the tundra was quite a challenge in the blowing snow and cold!

Setting up the aerosol inlet in 30+ mph wind and blowing snow!

Prof. Kerri Pratt

Purdue graduate student Angela Raso's blog: http://snowkidding.blogspot.com/
Prof. Kerri Pratt's previous BROMEX blog: http://shepsonbromex.blogspot.com/

Welcome Wuliang and Zhuoyu!

Welcome Wuliang Zhang and Zhuoyu Peng, new undergraduate students in the Pratt Lab!  Wuliang and Zhuoyu are junior chemistry majors and will be studying cloud water chemistry this semester.

Holiday Party!

Front: Matt Gunsch, Amy Bondy (Ault lab), Jillian Cellini, Becky Craig (Ault lab), Jenny Berry

Back: Dan Gardner (Ault lab), Nate May (with the dancing cat!), Eric Boone, Prof. Kerri Pratt

Multi-talented Graduate Students

Back: Nate May, Dan Gardner (hiding!), Eric Boone
Front: Amy Bondy, Becky Craig, Matt Gunsch, Jill Cellini

Feeling confident in their ability as chemists, the Pratt and Ault labs decided to try their hands in a new field this past weekend. Thanks to Paint and Pour for the picture!

2013 MCubed Symposium

To communicate our research plans for our recently funded MCubed project in collaboration with Professor Andy Ault and Professor Eric Kort, I presented a poster during the inaugural MCubed Symposium on November 15th, 2013 at the University of Michigan. You can read more about our proposed study on the MCubed website.

Matt Gunsch (second year grad student)