Emissions research tracks effects of increased Arctic shipping
April 15, 2021
Rod Boyce
907-474-7185
Nicole Mölders, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, has been researching a method to accurately measure the impact of vessel exhaust in the Arctic as maritime shipping grows in the increasingly ice-free region.
Mölders’ research, the subject of a three-year NASA grant, analyzed the possibility of using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, a type of imaging sensor aboard two polar-orbiting satellites. She found that MODIS data can help assess the atmospheric impact of not only increased Arctic shipping but also of new oil and gas activities over the ocean and coastal areas north of 60 degrees latitude.
This first finding under her NASA grant was published in December in the Open Journal of Air Pollution.
She is now conducting additional research by using a lidar sensor aboard a third satellite. She will compare its data about the atmosphere to that obtained by the MODIS sensors aboard the other two satellites. A lidar sends out pulses of laser light, and the returning signals are used to determine the composition of the atmosphere.
The pollution potential has received little public attention because it is generally out of view, despite some of the emitted pollutants ending up in the ocean.
“The Arctic is one of the U.S. fishing grounds. That means when people eat their salmon, when they eat their halibut and they eat their cod, they get all the bad stuff that's in that fuel — through the food chain onto the table,” Mölders said.
Mölders is focusing her research on hot spots of northern shipping and on new oil and gas platform activity in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, northwest and north of Alaska.
She has been analyzing data of shipping in the Northern Sea Route, which gained renewed public attention due to the blockage of the Suez Canal. The Northern Sea Route, also known as the Northeast Passage, connects Japan to Norway via the Arctic Ocean. The northern route is half the distance of the southern route around China and India and up through the Suez Canal.
The Northwest Passage is similarly attractive, as it links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by running through the Arctic Ocean above Canada.
Mölders is among several scientists working in this new area of research to get ahead of the rising tide of Arctic shipping.
“When you have these ships, they emit black carbon, brown carbon,” she said. “They emit sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which are precursor gasses for getting aerosols, and many aerosols are basically cloud condensation nuclei.”
Those aerosols are the potential problem. They not only contribute to the formation of fog, including ice fog, but also can migrate great distances. Long-term exposure to aerosols smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter can be harmful to health.
The International Maritime Organization required shippers to switch vessels to low-sulfur fuel starting Jan. 1, 2020. The rule, years in the making, seeks an 80% reduction in ocean-going sulfur emissions.
“The resulting reduction in sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions from ships is having major health and environmental benefits for the world, particularly for populations living close to ports and coasts,” a statement on the IMO website reads.
ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Nicole Mölders, University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, cmoelders@alaska.edu
NOTE TO EDITORS: A longer version of this press release is available on the Geophysical Institute website at gi.alaska.edu.