WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.430


2
00:00:01.450 --> 00:00:03.530
We have seven snakes loaded,

3
00:00:03.550 --> 00:00:05.550
and we have seven snakes in the belly.

4
00:00:05.570 --> 00:00:07.180
Oh it started back in the 80s,

5
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:13.950
and I think it's because of the serpentine looking tubing.

6
00:00:13.970 --> 00:00:17.120
I don't know, some grad students,

7
00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:18.910
I came in one day and they said

8
00:00:18.930 --> 00:00:21.410
the cans were all snaked up.

9
00:00:21.430 --> 00:00:23.410
So they've been called snakes ever since.

10
00:00:23.430 --> 00:00:25.780
It becomes a problem when you are shipping canisters,

11
00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:28.470
though, to places that actually have snakes.

12
00:00:28.490 --> 00:00:31.930
The long name would be Whole Air Sampler,

13
00:00:31.950 --> 00:00:34.180
but in science everything has an acronym.

14
00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:35.430
So we're WAS.

15
00:00:35.450 --> 00:00:39.320
We actually collect the air completely unfiltered.

16
00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:41.450
We bring air in from outside.

17
00:00:41.470 --> 00:00:44.420
it goes to a pump, gets pressurized,

18
00:00:44.440 --> 00:00:46.390
goes into an evacuated can.

19
00:00:46.410 --> 00:00:49.130
All these canisters are evacuated in our laboratory.

20
00:00:49.150 --> 00:00:51.310
Pressurized to about 40 psi

21
00:00:51.330 --> 00:00:53.110
and then the valve is closed.

22
00:00:53.130 --> 00:00:55.880
Once the valve is closed then that can is done.

23
00:00:55.900 --> 00:00:57.470
And then we go to the next can.

24
00:00:57.490 --> 00:01:02.130
And we can sample as many as 168 canisters per flight.

25
00:01:02.150 --> 00:01:04.680
We can swap out - these will all be full -

26
00:01:04.700 --> 00:01:07.690
put in empties and ship the filled ones

27
00:01:07.710 --> 00:01:10.780
back to our laboratory so they can get analysis going.

28
00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:13.980
We measure three or four different kinds of gases.

29
00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.100
We measure gases that destroy stratospheric ozone.

30
00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:20.860
We measure gases that are greenhouse gases.

31
00:01:20.880 --> 00:01:26.100
We measure gases that come out of the ocean, from different kinds of bugs.

32
00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:29.610
We measure gases that are given off by biomass burning.

33
00:01:29.630 --> 00:01:35.570
We measure gases that participate in urban pollutions - smog.

34
00:01:35.590 --> 00:01:39.980
So we'll quantify a hundred gases, and in some cases,

35
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.280
gases that have never had any kind of

36
00:01:43.300 --> 00:01:48.480
a global sampling like this project.

37
00:01:48.500 --> 00:01:50.430
So what do we expect to learn?

38
00:01:50.450 --> 00:01:51.180
I don't know.

39
00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:53.060
I guess it's a little bit like asking Lewis and Clark

40
00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:55.330
what did they expect, you know, besides trees.

41
00:01:55.350 --> 00:01:57.730
But they knew they were gonna find something cool.

42
00:01:57.750 --> 00:02:00.980
And we always do.

43
00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.971