A Visit to the GAW Lab

In all the years I have been coming up to Alert, I have never been to the GAW Lab – until today.

Walking to the GAW Lab at 3pm. (The sun has almost disappeared!)

EC Josh & Tonya took a few of the station personnel (4) up to the lab to show us what they do. Inside, there is a wide variety of equipment testing the air that we breathe. The metal multi-tier tower on the right of the building was just erected this past summer. Next year, new sensors of various types will be installed on it.

Some of the equipment inside the lab

They measure mercury and a variety of gases in the atmosphere. Air is also bottled for shipment to the USA and Heidelberg University for further study. There are a series of GAW Labs around the world. Some graphs showed a marked difference in everything between the northern and southern hemispheres.

They should have a handout to explain all they do – it’s quite interesting, and unfortunately for me – easily forgotten!

They even have a Nipher Snow Gauge! I don’t even have one up here at my office.

They have a much nicer view too!

On returning to the trucks, the fog was rolling back in to the low lying areas, as you can see from this photo…

Snow, fog, sunlit mountains and sky. There is an illusion showing here also. There is an inversion near the top of the mountains, which is giving them a flattened appearance. Not too pronounced here, but at other times, it has been very noticeable.

Thanks Josh & Tonya for a tour of your lab!