Dan Carlson
My graduate field of study is environmental chemistry, more specifically our research group focuses on understanding reactive radical chemistry in the unique arctic environment. I am trying to elucidate the chemical and physical processes of arctic halogen chemistry, which drives ozone depletion, mercury deposition, and oxidation reactions in the arctic springtime atmosphere. This halogen chemistry is unique to the Polar Regions primarily because it requires a large scale frozen ice surface to initiate and sustain the reactions. While bromine chemistry has profound effects on the arctic ecosystem, its mechanisms are not fully understood. While rooted in the field of chemistry this topic is proving to be very interdisciplinary, extending into the fields of atmospheric science, ice physics, instrument development, and computer programming. My research utilizes a few different chemical analytical techniques in order to study bromine in multiple phases. Gas phase bromine monoxide (BrO) detection is accomplished by long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) using lab made instruments. Ion chromatography is used to measure bromide and other ions in water and melted snow/ice.
