With so few circumnavigations at the levels where I fly, it presented a unique opportunity to engage in some exciting science. Dr Dimitri Deheyn leads the Deheyn Lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. He’s also a fellow member of the Explorers Club. As typically happens at the club, we connected at the Annual Dinner this year and hatched together a plan to conduct a unique set of measurements as I flew around the world.
In Dimitri’s words:
“The Deheyn lab studies the dispersion processes of microfibers in the environment. As such, microfibers are measured in the airborne phase but also when waterborne (rain, snow, lakes, rivers, and coastal ocean) and in organisms. Microfibers are a type of microplastics. They originate from our clothing and are about 1/10 of a hair diameter. Microfibers can be made of natural polymer (for example, cotton or hemp) but are mostly synthetic, like polyester, nylon, and spandex, since these make the bulk of our garments.
In this flight around the world expedition, we will test the hypothesis that microfibers develop a layer somewhere in the atmospheric column, which winds would sustain. As such, Pieter will fly with a Bertin particulate vacuum collector) that will be set to collect during the various moments of his flights (ground, ascend/descent, cruising altitude. About 60 collections will be done during his journey. No other similar experiment has ever been attempted before, so we are eager to analyze the data once available to us!”
I’ve connected the Bertin Coriolis collector directly to one of my air vents on the co-pilot side of the aircraft. By placing the Coriolis inside a plastic bag and maintaining slight positive pressure, we ensure that it captures only air directly entering from the outside. In the picture below, I’m taking a control sample while on the ground parked at Cold Bay on the Alaskan Peninsula.
Thus far, I have at least one sample for every leg of the flight. I will add that some of them were hard-won. I don’t see anyone taking another air sample over the Bay of Bengal soon!
We look forward to what the analysis of these samples adds to Dimitri’s continued research into the global impact of microplastic pollution.
1 Comment
This is a cool one, PW!