skip to main content
Caltech

Physics Research Conference

Thursday, January 26, 2012
4:00pm to 5:00pm
Add to Cal
East Bridge 201 (Richard P. Feynman Lecture Hall)
Cosmic rays, climate and the CERN CLOUD experiment
Jasper Kirkby, CERN,
For more than two centuries, scientists have been puzzled by observations of solar-climate variability yet the lack of any established physical mechanism. Some recent observations, although disputed, suggest that clouds may be influenced by cosmic rays, which are modulated by the solar wind. The CLOUD experiment aims to settle the question of whether or not cosmic rays have a climatically- significant effect on clouds by carrying out a series of carefully- controlled measurements in a large cloud chamber exposed to an ionising particle beam from the CERN Proton Synchrotron. By current estimates, about half of all cloud droplets are formed on aerosol particles that were "nucleated" from the clustering of trace atmospheric vapours. This talk will present the scientific motivation for CLOUD and the first results on the influence of cosmic ray ionisation on the nucleation and growth of atmospheric aerosol particles.
For more information, please contact Sheri Stoll by phone at 395-6608 or by email at [email protected] or visit http://www.pma.caltech.edu/~physcoll/PhysColl.html.