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Cleanest Air on Earth Identified by Atmospheric Scientists in First-of-Its-Kind Study - SciTechDaily
Jun 03, 2020 2 mins, 13 secs

An atmospheric region in the Southern Ocean unchanged by human-related activities..

Colorado State University Distinguished Professor Sonia Kreidenweis and her research group identified an atmospheric region unchanged by human-related activities in the first study to measure bioaerosol composition of the Southern Ocean south of 40 degrees south latitude..

Kreidenweis’ group, based in the Department of Atmospheric Science, found the boundary layer air that feeds the lower clouds over the Southern Ocean to be pristine — free from particles, called aerosols, produced by anthropogenic activities or transported from distant lands. Their findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on June 1, 2020..

Weather and climate are complex processes connecting each part of the world to every other region, and with climate changing rapidly as a result of human activity, it’s difficult to find any area or process on Earth untouched by people. Kreidenweis and her team suspected the air directly over the remote Southern Ocean that encircles Antarctica would be least affected by humans and dust from continents. They set out to discover what was in the air and where it came from..

“We were able to use the bacteria in the air over the Southern Ocean as a diagnostic tool to infer key properties of the lower atmosphere,” said research scientist Thomas Hill, coauthor on the study. “For example, that the aerosols controlling the properties of SO clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and that Antarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganisms and nutrient deposition from southern continents. Overall, it suggests that the Southern Ocean is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities.”.

Samples were collected during the NSF-funded SOCRATES field campaign, led by research scientist and coauthor Paul DeMott. Graduate student Kathryn Moore sampled the air in the marine boundary layer, the lower part of the atmosphere that has direct contact with the ocean, aboard the Research Vessel Investigator as it steamed south from Tasmania to the Antarctic ice edge. Research scientist and first author Jun Uetake examined the composition of airborne microbes captured from the ship. The atmosphere is full of these microorganisms dispersed over hundreds to thousands of kilometers by wind.

Reference: “Airborne bacteria confirm the pristine nature of the Southern Ocean boundary layer” by Jun Uetake, Thomas C. J. Hill, Kathryn A. Moore, Paul J. DeMott, Alain Protat and Sonia M. Kreidenweis, 1 June 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Overall, it suggests that the Southern Ocean is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities.”

June 1, 2020

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