People, papers and presentations

Arthur Few, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, recently presented a poster paper on “Lightning and Ice in Volcano Clouds” at the American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference on Volcanism and the Atmosphere held in Selfoss, Iceland. His paper emphasized the important relationship between very small ash particles in the volcano cloud, which act as ice nuclei, and the overabundance of the production of small Ice crystals in the cloud. These ice crystals lead to the vigorous production of static electricity and lightning. The numerous ice crystals also adsorb chemicals from the cloud and transport them into the stratosphere. Once in the stratosphere, these chemicals may form thin ice clouds, which reflect sunlight and possibly cool Earth’s surface.