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HIGHRISE:
Jeff Beck '10, left, holds a carbon dioxide analyzer inlet tube as he
and classmate Gavin Bodkin '09, far right, participate in a student-run
experiment April 15 at the Middletown Fire Department station on Church
Street. The Middletown Fire Department allowed the Wesleyan students to
use its 100-foot-tall ladder wagon so the students could collect
measurements of pressure, temperature, elevation and carbon dioxide concentration
every 10 feet up to 100 feet. Beck and Bodkin are students in the
course, Global Climate Change, taught by Johan "Joop" Varekamp, the
Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science and chair of the Earth and
Environmental Sciences Department. |
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The class's carbon dioxide monitoring group measures
carbon dioxide concentrations in the Middletown atmosphere through a hole in the
windowsill at the fourth floor of Exley Science Center every half hour
for several days in a row to study day-night variations in carbon
dioxide
concentration. According to Varekamp, during the night, the
concentrations tend to be higher and during mid day lower because of the
thermal stratification in the atmosphere at night. The class decided to
establish a profile of carbon dioxide concentration in the early morning
(atmosphere stratified) and mid day (atmosphere better mixed) with the
help of the Middletown fire department.
As a result of this study, the class
found that in the morning, carbon dioxide concentrations slightly declined with
elevation, while at midday, they found overall lower concentrations and
no gradient in the values with elevation. This indicates that carbon
dioxide
escapes from ground level, in the soil, and moves into the atmosphere.
(Photos by Johan Varekamp) |
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