It was a pleasure to welcome Dr. Annmarie Eldering to Wellington last week. A scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Dr Eldering is working on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) project. She came to Wellington to attend a conference organized to review current standards for measuring levels of carbon dioxide and other gases, in an effort to standardize such metrics worldwide.

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which conducted the first-ever stand-up rocket engine test in 1936. Located with CalTech in Pasadena, California, JPL is a major research, development, and exploration hub with a long string of “firsts” to its credit. JPL was led for more than 20 years by Kiwi-American Dr William Hayward Pickering.

I have always had a strong interest in space travel and space sciences, so having someone from NASA nearby is a great temptation. Rather than pepper Dr Eldering with questions, however, I asked her to just talk a bit about the highlights of her visit to New Zealand.

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Dr Annmarie Eldering.

Dr Annmarie Eldering:

Ambassador, thank you for asking me to write a few paragraphs about my trip.

As you know, the purpose of my visit was to attend a weeklong conference on Greenhouse Gas Measurements, but I did have time to get out and explore a bit.

I’ve never visited New Zealand, so I was impressed by the beautiful scenery of Wellington. I love hiking and getting outside, so on the afternoon of my arrival, I walked all along the waterfront and enjoyed the scenery and beautiful architecture.

The conference is a very interesting meeting of about 100 experts from around the world who take detailed measurements of greenhouse gases. There are measurements being made all over the world – in Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, throughout the continents of Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa, and in many small island nations. The goal is to make sure that all of these measurements can be compared to one another, and that they are precise enough that we can see small trends (i.e., changes over time) in greenhouse gases.

At this meeting, people share comparisons of their data, talk about things they have learned about how the instruments operate, and plan for next steps to improve and continue the measurements. More details about the meeting can be found at: http://www.niwa.co.nz/node/103049

NIWA’s Atmospheric monitoring station at Baring Head.

I flew in for the meeting because the data that are being collected are critical to the project that I work on. I am one of the science leads of a JPL/NASA project called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2. We are building a satellite instrument that will make precise measurements of the carbon dioxide all around the globe.

We will measure the column of carbon dioxide — i.e., the total amount between the surface and the top of the atmosphere. It will be important to check that our measurements are correct, so we will rely on data that is collected by a set of special ground-based measurements like those being discussed at the meeting here in Wellington.

Computer model of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.

Scientists from NIWA are operating a special ground-based measurements site in Lauder and collaborating with us on checking our satellite measurements. I was very happy to meet those scientists in person after all our past communications via email and telephone.

Of course we spent most of our time in meetings at the Convention Center, but one evening we had dinner at the Te Papa museum. We were fortunate that the museum is open late on Thursday, so I had a couple of hours to explore the exhibits before the dinner started. I especially enjoyed the display called “Passports,” where I learned about the waves of immigration to New Zealand. The photos of recent immigrants who came as refugees from other countries were very powerful and certainly resonate with me as an American.

One afternoon, I took some time away from the conference to talk to students at two colleges in Wellington. I always enjoy having the opportunity to talk to students about the project I work on, and also about how I got interested in working in the area of atmospheric sciences and greenhouse gases in the first place.

The first school that we visited was Wellington Girls College. I was quite pleased to see that there was a room full of students who were interested to hear what I had to say. I talked about the path of training and work that I took to end up where I am today, in a science leadership position for the OCO-2 mission.

Dr Eldering at Wellington Girls College.

The girls had great questions — asking about other missions that NASA is building, how air pollution has changed over time, and how our understanding of climate change is improving. They were a very thoughtful audience, attentive, well-mannered, and appreciative. In fact, I left with a nice gift of a local Pinot Gris.

The next stop was Scots College. I was impressed again by the attentiveness of the students and the excellent questions that they asked. Again, it was clear that students had been learning about climate and the carbon cycle, so it was easy to have a good conversation with them. In fact, one of the students had just written an essay about climate change, won a contest, and will be traveling to New York to participate in meetings in the coming weeks.

Dr Eldering at Scots College.

It has been an interesting and productive visit, and good progress was made on a very important topic. Ambassador, I’ll keep you informed about how OBO-2 is proceeding.

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Thanks to Dr Eldering for taking time out of her busy schedule to meet some of Wellington’s future scientists during her time here. I always deeply appreciate when visiting VIPs are so gracious and enthusiastic about meeting with students.

Dr Eldering’s visit prompted me to do a bit of additional research, and I came across a great video from the State Department about the importance of women in science. I urge you to take a look by clicking here.

One of the highlights of the very good month of May was the arrival in New Zealand of the crew of NASA’s space shuttle Discovery, just back from the International Space Station. The six astronauts – commander Steven Lindsey, pilot Eric Boe, and mission specialists Nicole Stott, Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, and Stephen Bowen – graciously agreed to spend 10 days here in New Zealand visiting primary and secondary schools to talk about space and science.

From left, astronauts Alvin Drew, Nicole Stott, Eric Boe, Steven Lindsey, Michael Barratt, and Stephen Bowen.

Squired throughout their visit by Ree Varcoe of the Hamilton Central Business Association, the crew spent four days in the Waikato, four days in Christchurch, and two days in Auckland. Over the course of that time the astronauts interacted with more than a thousand students from about 20 different schools. The message at each stop was the same … dream, work hard, reach for the stars, and choose a career that excites you.

At each stop the crew talked about the challenges of living and working in zero gravity, their own particular paths to becoming astronauts, and the ins and outs of space shuttles and space walks. They talked in detail about their last mission delivering and attaching a large multi-purpose module named Leonardo to the International Space Station.

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Today I’d like to introduce you to Erik M. Conway, a fellow Californian who came to Wellington earlier this month to give a keynote speech at the Climate Futures Forum. Hosted at Te Papa, the Forum was organized by Victoria University’s New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute.

Erik M. Conway.

Erik is an historian of science and technology at the California Institute of Technology. He studies and documents the history of space exploration, and examines the intersections of space science, Earth science, and technological change.

He has written several books including Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, which he co-authored with Naomi Oreskes. He has received a variety of awards for his work, including from NASA and from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

As Earth Day is fast approaching, I thought it might be interesting and useful to ask Erik a few questions about his research and about the future of climate science.

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DH: Erik, welcome to Wellington.

EC: Thank you, Ambassador. I’m happy to be here.

DH: You have been studying the history of climate science for about 10 years. What are some of the differences you see between information available about climate change today as opposed to a decade ago?

EC: The principal recent finding has been the loss of ice mass from Greenland and Antarctica documented by the joint United States/Germany GRACE gravity satellite mission. Most climate scientists did not expect those two ice sheets to be losing mass this early in the global warming era.

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As you may already have picked up, I am a science aficionado. When given a choice, I tend to gravitate toward telescopes, formulae, experiments, science fiction, fossils, and volcanoes rather than some of the other recreational choices available to humans. I have never outgrown my childhood love of outer space, dinosaurs, and atoms. I think Albert Einstein was, and is, cool. I think kids who like science and technology are cool .. in fact, far cooler than some of the types who usually rule the roost during adolescence.

High school rock stars in action.

So, I had a particularly enjoyable day when I was in Auckland last week. I drove up to Massey University’s North Shore Campus in Albany to visit my robot-building friends from the Home School, Kristen School, Rangitoto College, Albany Senior High School, and Lynfield College. As you know from my prior Kiwibot post, these guys and girls have been doing wonderful work, and I wanted to see what they are up to now.

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