Southern Ocean In Antarctica May Have The Cleanest Air On Our Earth
In a first of its kind study, scientists may have found cleanest air on the planet.
The COVID-19 lockdown is definitely the worst thing to happen to humanity in a really long time, however, it has surely managed to have some positive effects too -- particularly with the way nature has healed itself without humans.
However, no matter how fresh our air feels right now, it isn¡¯t the cleanest yet because it still has pollutants in it.
NASA
However, now a group of researchers have actually found a place with the cleanest air on our planet. That place is situated in a region in the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica.
This was discovered by a team of climate scientists from Colorado State University, (study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences) led by Professor Sonia Kreidenweis.
How did they find this place?
Sonia and her team were curious to find out the extent of human pollution¡¯s journey across our planet. They sailed into the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica at around 40 degrees south latitude and analysed the composition of air from a variety of points.
They checked for air quality from the boundary layer -- a section of the lower atmosphere that comes into contact with the surface of the ocean, going as high as 2 kilometres into the atmosphere.
The collected samples revealed that the air had no aerosols or other particles connected to human activity or pollution.
With the help of DNA sequencing, source tracking and wind back trajectories, researchers found that the microbes' origins were marine, sourced from the ocean.
The bacterial composition also was segregated into broad latitudinal zones, that suggested that aerosols from distant landmasses and human activities, such as pollution were not travelling south into Antarctic air.
University of Colorado
Research scientist Thomas Hill, who is also the co-author of the study said in a statement, "We were able to use the bacteria in the air over the Southern Ocean as a diagnostic tool to infer key properties of the lower atmosphere. For example, the aerosols controlling the properties of SO clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and that Antarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganisms and nutrient deposition from southern continents. Overall, it suggests that the SO is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities."
Would you go like to breathe in this "cleanest air on the planet" one day? Hopefully, we don't end up polluting and ruining this pristine and pure patch of our planet.
