Car carrier is a floating lab

It may be a massive new car carrier, but the TransFuture 5 is also a platform for scientific research into atmospheric pollution across the Pacific.

28 November 2005

Japanese scientist Shigeru Kariya explains the layout of the ship's gas lab to Ross Martin and Tony Bromley of NIWA. (photo: Alan Blacklock).

The TransFuture 5, owned by Toyofuji Shipping Company, is 200 metres long and of over 60 000 tonnes displacement. It arrives at Port Nelson for the first time in the early hours of Monday 28 November.

Scientists from NIWA and Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) will be analysing air samples collected on the ship’s journeys between Nelson and Osaka, Japan. This continues work started in May 2004 using a previous car carrier, FujiTransworld, which now trades between Japan and China.

'Toyofuji Shipping Company has generously contributed to the construction of a specialised air sampling laboratory on-board, worth US$150 000,' says Tony Bromley of NIWA.

'We want to learn more about how greenhouse gas emissions differ in the northern and southern hemispheres,' says Mr Bromley. 'The ship’s route from Nelson to Osaka enables us to make regular measurements of the air in both hemispheres.'

The voyage takes the ship through meteorological convergence zones in the tropics, which act as a kind of buffer, restricting movement of air between the northern and southern hemispheres. 'We want to know how, when, and to what extent greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution move from the north to the south,' says Mr Bromley. 'This is important because some of the increasing greenhouse gas around New Zealand is not generated by us but by the northern hemisphere. Changes in the concentrations of trace gases such as methane correlate with seasonal biomass burning in the tropics and intrusions of northern hemisphere air into southern latitudes.'

'We're using techniques such as analysis of stable carbon isotopes in methane to work out where the greenhouse gas has come from, including ruminant animals, biomass burning, or rice paddies. The techniques also enable us to study the effect of atmospheric chemistry on gases as they cross from northern to southern regions.'

TransFuture 5 leaves Nelson late on Monday 28 November. Ross Martin of NIWA will be operating the laboratory for this voyage.