The personal logs of scientist Dr Andrew Smith, who is currently working on a global climate project for ANSTO in Antarctica, can be accessed online. The logs detail Dr Smiths work, also include his accounts of the sea journey on the Aurora Australis to Antarctica and what it is like to live on the ice.
 |
| Dr Andrew Smith holding an ice core sample. |
The daily logs give Dr Smiths own account of the strategic research project long-lived radionuclides in Antarctic ice as indicators of global climate variability. He is the project leader and is accompanied by David Etheridge from CSIROs Division of Atmospheric Research, and mechanical and electrical engineers from the Australian Antarctic Division. They originally stayed at Casey Base but have moved on to Law Dome.
"The main purpose of this sampling expedition is to study the anthropogenic (human contributions) to global atmospheric methane levels. It is a small part of the whole project," Dr Smith said.
"The Antarctic ice sheet is covered by a layer of permeable compact snow ice above the snowline. Air trapped within the ice sheet ranges in age from the present day back as far as 400,000 years ago at certain sites." He said.
"This air can be extracted and analysed to determine past atmospheric composition, trace gas concentrations and isotopic ratios, for times before direct atmospheric measurements were made. These records can be used to determine the amount of global atmospheric trace gases that existed in air at different times in the past."
The air samples from the ice sheet will be analysed at ANSTOs Lucas Heights site using accelerator mass spectrometry in the tandem accelerator facility. About 200 litres of air samples will be analysed.
Published: 12/12/1997