Hi! My name is Chelsea and I will be your Reach the World guide for the Cleanest Air on Earth Expedition – Part 2! I am a graduate student at Colorado State University, and I study these tiny things in the air called ice nucleating particles, or INPs for short. INPs can come from dust, plant debris, or many other sources! They are very good at collecting water and then freezing it, helping to make ice in clouds. This impacts the amount of sunlight that passes through clouds, which is vital to determining how land on Earth is heated.
Due to the fragile nature of the polar regions and specifically the Southern Ocean, we will be taking INP measurements and weather observations on our floating science vessel, the Research Survey Vessel (RSV) Nuyina. We will be traveling from Burnie, Tasmania, Australia to the Denman Glacier in East Antarctica on the Nuyina, taking many samples over the course of 2 months. I’m excited to take all of you on the journey with us and I know you will have fun and learn a lot as you follow along with us! Before we embark on our journey, I wanted to share a little bit about myself and our voyage with you.
