Oden News Flash!
Before we get to today's topics I need to make 2 announcements....

1. We crossed the International Date Line Today! If you check the longitude for this journal post you will see that for the first time we are located in the Eastern Hemisphere. For the last 5 weeks we have been traveling west and we crossed the 180˚ of longitude this afternoon. This also means that we have gained a day on the calendar. For example, when we speak with all of you during the Live From IPY webinar on Wed Jan 7th at 1pm Eastern time, we will be on New Zealand time and our clocks will tell us it is 7am on Thurs Jan 8th. It's a big, round world out there!

2. I can see Ross Island! After spending almost 3 days crossing the 500 mile length of the Ross Sea Polynya, we are nearing the western edge which is marked by heavy sea ice and the mountains of Ross Island. I can see the four volcanic mountains that tower over the island. The first is Mt. Terror and the largest is Mt. Erebus. Erebus is an active volcano and by tomorrow we will be just north of it.

Antarctic Air Pollution Study Video

Professon Henrik Kylin is an environmental chemist from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research. He has studied pollutants and environmental contaminants all over the world including the Arctic, Asia and Africa. He has come to one of the most remote and cleanest places on the planet to collect air, water and snow samples from the Amundsen and Ross Seas and to test them for levels of pollutants. This video shows how he collects snow from the surface of the sea ice and then extracts the air pollution particles that fell from the sky with the snow. His concern is that black carbon soot particles can cause the snow and sea ice to melt too fast. I was fascinated to see that although we are thousands of miles from sources of pollution like forest fires and industries, those forms of pollution find their way to the most remote and clean place on Earth.

Antarctic Air Pollution Study

Making memories on the ice,

Jeff Peneston