Welcome back and thanks again for following our journey to Antarctica! For this expedition, we’ll be using the RSV Nuyina (pronounced noy-yee-nah), a new Australian ice breaker. Built in 2018, this is the very first scientific voyage for Nuyina. We are honored to be a part of what will hopefully be many more scientific expeditions for the Nuyina.
The ship is quite big – 160.3 meters (or 525.92 feet) long! That is a good thing because it has to house all of the essentials for big scientific voyages such as a galley (cafeteria), gym, sleeping quarters, a hospital, theater, lounges, laundry rooms, and more! It’s basically a big floating village that we can call home for the next two months.
For the sake of The Cleanest Air on Earth Expedition Part 2, we are using the metrology lab on deck 9 and sampling towers just outside of the lab. It is quite a lovely view from our lab and sometimes we even get to go up to deck 11, affectionately known as “monkey island” to fix the radars. After collecting filter samples outside of the metrology lab, we have to travel all the way down to deck 4 to use the wet lab for sterile sample collection and packaging. Traveling five flights of stairs in rough seas is not always easy!
