Today I had a free time in the afternoon, so I measured the intensity of ultraviolet ray. My responsibility in this project is environmental research. Roughly speaking, I am planning to do the study on the followings:

1. Ultraviolet ray
2. Extent of air pollution
3. Effects of mineral dust from Asia

I will write about the study from time to time. I hope you'll enjoy it.

A Study On Ultraviolet Rays

As you all may know, the depletion of ozone layer caused by chemical substances like chlorofluorocarbon has been a serious environmental issue. Increased amounts of ultraviolet rays can lead to not only aging of the skin like spots or wrinkles, but also diseases such as skin cancer and cataract. This research on ultraviolet ray will be conducted under the guidance of Mr. Munakata, a professor at Rikkyo University. We used grass bacillus smeared onto slides to measure the ultraviolet ray.

Exposing slides with grass bacillus to the sunlight
Intensity of ultraviolet ray in the direct light from sun as well as
the reflective light from the snow surface is measured

Grass bacillus is a bacterium that is closely-related with bacillus natto. Found in soil, it is a non-malicious bacterium. The bacterium is exposed to sunlight for about 15 minutes. The intensity of ultraviolet rays is then measured by the percentage of grass bacillus that is destroyed by the ultraviolet rays.

This time I'm going to measure two kinds of light: The direct light from the sun and the reflective light from the snow surface. In Narsarsuaq, the light reflected from the snow is so intense that I cannot open my eyes. When I think of the effects of ultraviolet ray on human body, I feel that Greenland is different from Japan in that the reflective light has more influence over human body than the direct sunlight.