BRITT: Well, here we are flying along at 45,000 feet. Beautiful day.
All systems still go. Let's give you a view of the outside here.
NARR: YOU MIGHT CALL IT SCIENCE WITH ALTITUDE…
BRITT: Today we’re up on Niwot Ridge at about 11,000 feet
NARR: …BUT THIS BIOGEOSCIENTIST CALLS IT A DAY AT THE OFFICE.
BRITT: One of the great things about my job is that I get to mix a lot of fun activities in with the actual work.
Hi My name is Britt Stephens, I’m a scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Hi Mom
BRITT: This instrument in front of me is measuring carbon dioxide and also oxygen. And
the oxygen measurement is really the challenging part here. Carbon dioxide comes from cars and power plants
and it’s taken up by trees and the ocean so what I do is try and figure out where it’s going
to, where it’s coming from and how it’s affecting the temperature of the earth.”
NARR: And the best way to study the atmosphere… is to be there.
BRITT: So we have uh and instrument in this box - an ultraviolet light that shines
through the air and can tell how much oxygen is there by how much is absorbed.
NARR: Brit's measurements come from an instrument he knows better than anyone - because, well, he made it.
BRITT: The actual sensor is inside this small box, it has an
ultraviolet lamp that puts out a wavelength of light that’s absorbed by oxygen and we’re
simply measuring how much of that light is absorbed in the air that we’ve pulled in from outside the airplane.
The red is carbon dioxide and the green is oxygen, and there there was a
very large decrease in CO2 as we got near the surface, so the forests in wisconsin are taking
up a lot more carbon dioxide during the day than up here By measuring oxygen and CO2 levels
in the atmosphere, Britt's helping the global community get closer to figuring out the exact
nature of climate change and how working with nature might be the key in solving one of the
world's toughest problems. I have hope that if we can understand better how the oceans
and the land plants are taking up carbon dioxide that we can enhance those processes in a way
that will help reduce the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
NARR: As and essential part of his research, Brit treks around the planet Earth with his measuring Equipment.
BRITT: We’ll go out on our first global loop and fly from Colorado to Alaska to
Hawaii, Samoa, New Zealand, down over Antarctica and back and
then the return trip is via Tahiti, Easter Island and Costa Rica.
NARR: When Brit became an Earth Scientists, he didn't realize that travel and adventure would be part of the job.
BRITT: I’ve stood toe to toe with a moose in the middle of the night in Vermont.
And I’ve worked on instruments on a small buoy while sharks were swimming
around underneath. And I get to fly in an airplane up to 50,000 feet.
I’ve ridden on a ship to Antarctica and back. So it's a lot of fun getting to travel with my job.
NARR: It was his love of the outdoors as a kid that eventually made Brit want
to make studying the Earth his work.
BRITT: So it was about a year into college when I finally realized that the pollution
and overcrowding had just changed things so much that
it was apparent to me then that we really needed to understand what we were doing a lot better
and that this subject of studying earth sciences was worth pursuing.
NARR: And once he was out in the field doing research, he knew he wanted more.
BRITT: That was really a discovery for me that I could take this field I was really interested in and do things
outside of a lab or an office. Another aspect of my research is trying to measure carbon dioxide
fluxes on regional scales, and to do that we measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on the
tops of mountains. NARR: All along the rocky mountains, Britt collects data on CO2 changes caused by weather systems.
BRITT: We now have 6 of these out at different sites...we can measure the carbon dioxide in
the morning say over Steamboat, in the afternoon over Niwot Ridge,
and we can see how much has been removed by the forests in between. So I would say being
a scientist allows you to be an active participant in your world. Everything around us
nowadays is somehow related to science. Do you know if there's a way to tell if this computer
can see the outside world? For me, it’s a lot more satisfying thing to be able to understand
those things and take part in making things better. What I think really is most exciting
about science is when you figure something out that no one else has ever figured out before.
So there's a lot of room for creativity in science. If you look at all of the great
advances, they're all based on some really creative thinking, some unique ideas. We're all
part of the problem, as people say… we're also all part of the solution... by studying it and
helping us figure out things we can do about it, I’m hoping I’m making a little bit of positive difference.
NARR: And sometimes making that difference… means rising above the clouds.