Atmospheric electricity and high energy particles Giles Harrison Department of Meteorology, University of Reading

The earth’s atmospheric electrical system couples solar variations into the lower regions of the atmosphere, indeed right down to the surface. This is because solar variations modulate galactic cosmic rays, which are responsible for the ionisation permitting current flow between the upper and lower atmosphere.

The vertical “global circuit” current also passes through layer clouds, which are very abundant. It results in charging at the upper and lower edges of the layer clouds, as has been observed with balloon-carried instrumentation developed at Reading. As a result the cloud top and cloud base charging can therefore also be expected to vary with solar activity, effectively communicating solar changes down into the lower atmosphere.

Giles Harrison is Professor of Atmospheric Physics in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, where he has also served as Head of Department. His undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.

He has authored or co-authored over 200 papers, with over 130 published in internationally-refereed journals and in 2011 he gave the Bill Bright lecture at the International Electrostatics Conference.

His research continues over 250 years of UK studies in atmospheric electricity, particularly aerosol physics, solar-climate interactions, scientific sensor development and the retrieval of quantitative data from historical sources. His instrumentation work has developed balloon-carried probes for detection of turbulence and cloud properties aloft, also undertaking some of the first airborne measurements in UK airspace of the Icelandic volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull during the April 2010 flight ban.

The Vectis Astronomical Society meets on the 4th Friday of every month, except for December. This event is open for non-members to attend.

The speakers come from all over the country and give a presentation for around 45mins. We then stop for a break with tea and biscuits, which gives an opportunity to mingle and chat. The second half of the evening sees a presentation by one of our regular members showing us what to we could see in the sky over the coming month.

This always involves some great pictures projected onto the large screen. Entry to the event is free of charge, although as we run as a charity, donations are always welcome.

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