Our paper has likely been highly cited because it suggests that the snowpack participates in the (photo) chemistry of the lower atmosphere, a view that had not been previously considered to be important. The research described—measurements of atmospheric formaldehyde in snowpack interstitial air—has played a role in the development of a new field of atmospheric chemistry, snowpack photochemistry.

  Does it describe a new discovers or a new methodology that’s useful to others?

The paper describes the determination that gas phase formaldehyde is elevated in snowpack air at a remote, high Arctic location. This discovery has lead to the investigation of the role of the snowpack in determining the chemistry of other trace gases in the lower atmosphere.

We had been studying the role of gaseous formaldehyde in the fast destruction of ozone at ground level in the Arctic after polar sunrise. We determined that the snowpack air was elevated in formaldehyde during our efforts to learn why formaldehyde levels in the Arctic were higher than expected based on gas phase chemistry.