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Seafaring science
teacher gets whiff
of adventure

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By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

A science teacher from West Chester, Penn., left Hawaii today for the Far East on the cruise of a lifetime.

Susan Carty is a "teacher at sea" on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Ronald H. Brown.

The sixth- to eighth-grade teacher was chosen by NOAA to participate in a 40-day global aerosol research experiment.

"It's something I've been wanting to do a long time," she said before departure. "I'm very, very excited. The kids are excited, too."

About 30 scientists will participate in the project, including University of Hawaii oceanographer Barry Huebert. He will leave Boulder, Colo., in a C-130 with researchers focusing on airborne sampling of aerosols.

Carty will join the plane in Yokosuka, Japan.

John Kermond, with NOAA's Office of Global Programs in Silver Spring, Md., said, "Susan had been telling students for a long time that someday she would do research on a boat."

She happened to be on a year's sabbatical when he called and invited her to join the expedition, he said. "This had some destiny written into it."

The Aerosol Characterization Experiment, or ACE-Asia, is the fourth in a series of international experiments looking at atmospheric aerosol particles off the Asian continent, Kermond said.

He said that region is "probably the most prolific source of aerosols we know, and we don't have a good handle on where or how much."

The National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research and NOAA are partners in the project with nine or 10 other countries, he said.

"The real payoff is the models we use for climate change. ... They don't handle aerosols well because they don't know where to put them in a computer-gridded globe. We've never measured these things."

Land-based, ship, air and satellite measures are being done in the ACE-Asia experiments to try to understand how aerosol particles affect the earth's radiation balance and influence global warming and climate changes.

Carty will provide daily reports on the Web site www. ogp.noaa.gov.

Digital pictures also will be presented.

During the first three weeks, live broadcasts will be made from the ship, Kermond said.

Carty will fly on an airborne sampling mission and participate in an open house April 2 at Yokosuka Harbor as part of an Earth Day celebration.

She will go to other sites in Japan and to Korea, where NOAA has a land base, then back to a U.S. Marine Corps Air Base at Iwakuni, Japan, for a U.S.-Japan appreciation day.

One of about 10 women aboard the research ship, Carty said she is anxious to experience "the reality of what scientists do, how they do it, why and where. All that information is really significant for students.

"When they learn about what scientists learn, it's all dry. They don't really get a sense of how it's done and all the different environments.

"To me that's the big issue -- all the environments of science. Most students think it occurs in a dry lab in a basement of some building."

She said about 60 schools in the United States are following the trip. Four live hookups are planned to schools as the ship travels across the Pacific to Japan, she said.

She said the Asian area has never been on her list of places to go. "So when this opportunity came up, I had to remember to breathe.

"I started to do all kinds of research into the country and culture. It is fascinating."

Her husband, George, will meet her in Japan after the experiment May 5 for a week of sightseeing.