{"id":6278,"date":"2017-07-19T09:20:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T14:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/?p=6278"},"modified":"2017-07-24T14:42:02","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T19:42:02","slug":"ice-breaker-sau-alum-joins-scientific-team-antarctica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/2017\/ice-breaker-sau-alum-joins-scientific-team-antarctica\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice Breaker: SAU alum joins scientific team in Antarctica"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A 2016 graduate of Southern Arkansas University recently returned from a 65-day expedition to the Ross Sea in one of the harshest and most remote locations of the world \u2013 Antarctica.<\/p>\n

Casey O\u2019Hara, who graduated from SAU with a BS in chemistry, was among the two dozen scientists who set sail from Lyttleton, New Zealand, for Antarctica on April 10. O\u2019Hara, of Little Rock, Ark., said the expedition aimed to discover why, at a time when most polar areas are shrinking, the Ross Sea is covered with more ice than at any time in the past 30 years.<\/p>\n

For more than two months, her home was the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer, a 308-foot-long U.S. icebreaker capable of cracking through three feet of level ice. O\u2019Hara, a graduate student studying oceanography at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., was part of the PIPERS (Polynyas, Ice Production and Seasonal Evolution in the Ross Sea) expedition, comprised of multiple research groups with scientists from eight countries. The group encountered harsh wintertime conditions at the bottom of the world: round-the-clock darkness, lacerating winds and heavy sea ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an experience I never thought I\u2019d have, but I appreciate what I learned,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara talked about her educational experience at SAU. \u201cAs strange as it might sound, SAU actually found me,\u201d she said. \u201cThe first time I ever heard about SAU was when I received a letter saying I had qualified for a scholarship. I Googled the school, went down to visit a day or two later, and applied that day!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe highlight of my career at SAU was definitely working with the Natural Resource Research Center. I learned new chemistry techniques, got to work with more instrumentation than I ever thought possible, made friends, and learned about myself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She said that what drew her to the University \u201cwas that it had a variety of academic opportunities, offered a great scholarship, and was close to home. Although not what I originally thought I would go into, I graduated with my bachelor\u2019s in chemistry with an emphasis in analytical\/instrumental analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She credited Dr. Gija Geme in particular for her mentorship. \u201cShe inspired me to get into chemistry, do research, and become a better scientist,\u201d O\u2019Hara said. \u201cThe highlight of my career at SAU was definitely working with the Natural Resource Research Center. I learned new chemistry techniques, got to work with more instrumentation than I ever thought possible, made friends, and learned about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at graduate schools, I wanted to continue exploring the analytical techniques I had acquired at the NRRC,\u201d O\u2019Hara said. \u201cWhen I found ODU\u2019s Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Science\u2019s program, I learned that a graduate position with Dr. Peter Sedwick meant a two-month expedition to Antarctica to conduct research. I decided to jump on this unique opportunity and shift to oceanography.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Science magazine, the expedition represented the \u201cfirst winter research voyage into the Ross in nearly 20 years. The lure is the prospect of a better understanding of how the Sea\u2019s harsh winters give birth to its floating ice, which has expanded even as ice packs in the Arctic and some other parts of Antarctica have shrunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThe ODU group (which included O\u2019Hara) was interested in collecting seawater samples in order to determine iron concentrations to discover how these measurements are impacted by vertical mixing and sea ice formation during Antarctic winter,\u201d O\u2019Hara said. \u201cI prepared for the cruise by cleaning sampling equipment and stocking up on warm layers of clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBP served as \u201chome, lab space, gym, cafeteria, and lounge on our trip,\u201d she said. \u201cWe only got off the ship when there were ice stations for conducting research on ice thick enough to walk around on.\u201d<\/p>\n

One blog entry on the trip described conditions as similar to being at \u201cground zero of a hurricane-strength wind event. It is quite incredible to experience such an epic demonstration of polar ocean-atmospheric interaction. \u2026 Energy is pouring out of the ocean like some sort of apocalyptic rapture as the cold, dry atmosphere rips out its tribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>O\u2019Hara described the expedition as \u201cbeautiful. There was ice everywhere and brilliant green auroras, and wildlife I\u2019d never seen before \u2013 penguins, seals, and Albatrosses! Because we were in the Southern Hemisphere during austral winter, we ended up losing sunlight altogether about halfway through the trip. It was dark and cold \u2013 we had average temperatures around -30 degrees Celsius, or -22 degrees Fahrenheit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collecting seawater samples was vital to the research because \u201ciron is an essential element in the summer months in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica,\u201d O\u2019Hara said. \u201cPhytoplankton utilizes this iron \u2026 to photosynthesize, which helps regulate carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is not a well-established understanding of iron sources in the Southern Ocean, which is why this research is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara said she is currently working on her coursework and beginning her thesis at ODU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 2016 graduate of Southern Arkansas University recently returned from a 65-day expedition to the Ross Sea in one of the harshest and most remote locations of the world \u2013 Antarctica. Casey O\u2019Hara, who graduated from SAU with a BS in chemistry, was among the two dozen scientists who set sail from Lyttleton, New Zealand,… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":564,"featured_media":6293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[271,97,308,32641,7753],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-alumni","9":"category-college-of-science-and-technology","10":"category-featured-layout","11":"category-homepage","12":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}