Science at Halley.....An Introduction

Another week has passed and the handover seems to be going well. I'm now well into my stride with the daily routines. So what am I doing here? What are BAS doing here?

With the new Halley VI build well underway it was decided to run down the science projects at Halley to just the minimum long term experiments. I can only conclude that the manpower required to build the new base modules would limit the Halley V resources (accommodation etc) available to summer scientists and their projects. The Halley VI site, where the Halley VI modules that are currently being constructed at Halley V will eventually be moved to, is currently being prepared for the science that will eventually go in there.

Halley VI Construction at Halley V

So what science is being undertaken during this transitional phase? Well, it's mostly the long term projects that are being continued. These include:

Upper Ozone Measurements. Halley was where the Ozone Hole was discovered by Jon Shanklin et all during the mid eighties. The measurement of the upper ozone levels continues. The latest news from Jon is that this years ozone hole above Halley is very large and is unusually persistent for this time of year. Whilst a global ban on the manufacture and use of CFC's has been generally successful the hole is still getting bigger. Jon estimates that the Ozone Hole will recover by 2070.

The Dobson Spectrophotometer. The gold standard in upper atmospheric ozone measurement don't you know

Ground Ozone measurements are also taken. Whilst upper ozone is beneficial in the way it protects us from UV rays the ozone that occurs at ground level can be detrimental to human health. Ground ozone measurements at Halley help gauge the global mean average of ozone at ground level.

VLF experiments are a very cheap science but incredibly effective. The VeloxNet VLF experiment's prime purpose is to study the structure of the Earth's upper atmosphere. VeloxNet has been running for years and an interesting by-product of the science is that it helps determine the weather in space in so far as how the solar winds or solar flares charge the upper atmosphere. The weather caused by the solar winds and flares can have a detrimental and even damaging effect on Satellites. The information provided by VeloxNet helps satellite operators take the necessary action to avoid damage to their hardware. By chance, Halley is perfectly situated to undertake VLF experiments and when Halley VI goes operational many more flavours of VLF science will be implemented at the new site. I'll be blogging a lot more info about this interesting and accessible science over the coming months.

The very attractive rhombic VLF Antenna and ugly BAS operative

Snow and air sampling. Samples of snow from the surface are taken and sent off for analysis. The air sampling measures greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane which provide a global mean average of those gasses.

With the snow sampling Isotopes of water are analysed. The results allow the scientists to calibrate the readings gleaned from ice core samples.  To explain, ice cores allow scientists to look back at the climate hundreds of thousands of years ago. The deeper the ice core the older the ice. Obviously temperature cannot be measured directly so proxies are used to determine global mean temperature. So hundreds of thousands of years ago the global temperature caused certain isotopes and chemicals to be created. These isotopes and chemical were distributed in the atmosphere and carried around the globe and were subsequently locked in Antarctic ice. These isotope and chemical proxies are then used to determine the actual mean global temperature at the time the ice in the ice core was formed. 

Air Sampling Unit. Packaged into a 'James Bond' style suitcase by Q himself

Unlike temperature, some gases can be measured directly in ice cores as the atmosphere is trapped as bubbles of gas in the ice when the ice is formed. Ice cores demonstrate beyond doubt the actual increase in atmospheric CO2 that has been caused by human activities over the past couple of centuries. The big debate rumbling on between science and commerce is not about whether humanity has contributed to the level of CO2 in the atmosphere but what effect this large increase of CO2 will have on our future climate. Is prevention better than cure? 

In addition to the science there is the meteorological side of the job. Synoptic observations are carried out every three hours and are fed back to the Met Office and other interested parties(universities, other Met offices etc.). This data is input into global and local weather models in an effort to improve predictions. Similarly, the data from the daily weather balloon is fed into global and local models too.

More about the science and meteorology in subsequent posts.