The system is called Soluble Acidic Gases and Aerosols.
We have two parts to it.
One is a filter that's a bulk filter.
It collects aerosols from very tiny sizes
up to about 5 microns.
So we measure 8 or 9 ions,
tracers of pollution,
sea salt, biomass burning, and dust.
So the combinations or the ratios
tells us something about the source of the air.
Then we run the mist chamber IC sampler,
which collects soluble gases
and fine, submicron aerosols into a liquid.
And we make injections
right onto the IC on the airplane
so we get data about 3 or 4 minutes
after we collect the sample.
And there the focus is
primarily on nitrate and sulfate.
Well the filter sampling,
it's a manual system.
So you got to put the filters in there
and open the valves.
So every few minutes I gotta get up
and put in another filter,
and take the ones out
and put them back here in the cooler
so they don't degrade.
I think that we're going to see
really clean air,
but we're also going to see
pockets of pollution from various sources.
A long time ago
we came down to the Southern Ocean
on a NASA mission called ChemTropics,
and the same idea
we're trying to get into the tropics
and find this really clean air.
But we were seeing biomass burning plumes
from Africa and South America
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
So I think we will see stuff like that.
It's just not clear
how much of an effect does that have.
If you don't go after them
and you just fly around,
do you see them 10 percent of the time
or 50, or...? We don't know.
So that's why this mission is not targeting them.
It's trying to sample them
as they happen to be there.
We're certainly going to hit them
throughout the four seasons
and in all different parts of the trip.