Understanding energetic particle effects on atmospheric processes

我们温和的气候使地球上的生命成为可能。为了预测我们的气候将如何变化，有必要了解所有的过程，包括自然和人为的，这可能有助于气候变化。气候科学家对人为因素有相当好的把握，但我们对自然变率对气候变化的贡献的认识存在差距。不确定性的主要来源之一是太阳引起的变化。太阳的亮度通过加热直接影响地球的气候，并且主要在11年的时间尺度上变化。这种直接影响相对较好地理解，但是还有其他间接影响（与太阳输出有关，但需要另一个物理过程）被认为会影响地球的气候，并且根本没有得到很好的理解。如果我们要在预测未来气候变化时准确地考虑太阳的影响，就必须更好地理解这些间接影响。我的研究将调查太阳变化对大气过程的潜在间接影响之一，即电荷对云的影响。电荷是由银河宇宙射线（GCR）（来自太阳系外的高能粒子）电离在大气中产生的。当GCR接近地球时，它们会被太阳和地球的磁场偏转，这对GCR来说是一个选择性的能量屏障。太阳的磁场主要在11年的时间尺度上变化，因此GCR通量和大气中的电荷都受太阳活动的控制。由于大气中电荷的垂直流动，电荷在云层的上下边界积累（这是你在阴天看到的非常常见的云）。电荷附着在云滴上，这被认为会影响云滴的行为，例如它们如何生长和粘在一起，这可以在云的高度等大尺度云的特性中看到。由于这种云控制着大气的加热和冷却，并且同时覆盖了大约40%的地球表面，因此云的电荷效应可能会对气候产生影响。我的研究将调查控制大气中电荷的因素，确定电荷是否在云过程中发挥作用，并最终确定这是否对气候很重要。为了确定控制大气中电荷的因素，以及云层内部存在的典型电荷，测量将使用一套新开发的传感器，这些传感器被设计成与传统的气象气球一起飞行。这些轻便的一次性传感器提供了一种经济有效的方法，可以从全球气象服务机构已经在世界各地发射的气象气球上获得额外的科学数据。这些空中测量将与世界各地不同地点的电荷和大气电的表面测量相结合，以了解电荷对太阳变化的全球反应。这种测量是罕见的，是至关重要的，以了解负责调制垂直电荷流的物理机制，因此空间天气和低层大气之间的耦合。这个主题位于物理学和气象学的交叉点，并提供了一个机会来调查我们仍然处于理解的初级阶段的过程。在这一领域有大量令人兴奋的、可能非常重要的基础研究有待完成，这将最终帮助我们了解这些新过程是否与气候有关。

Our moderate climate makes life on Earth possible. In order to predict how our climate will change in future, it is necessary to understand all of the processes, both natural and man made, which can contribute to climate change. Climate scientists have a fairly good grasp of the anthropogenic factors, but there are gaps in our knowledge about the contribution to climate change from natural variability. One of the major sources of uncertainty is the variability caused by our sun. The brightness of the sun influences Earth's climate directly by heating, and varies mainly on an 11 year timescale. This direct effect is relatively well understood, however there are other indirect effects (which are linked to solar output, but require another physical process in between) which are thought to influence Earth's climate, and are not at all well understood. It is essential that these indirect effects are better understood if we are to accurately account for solar effects in predicting future climate change. My research will investigate one of the potential indirect effects of solar variability on atmospheric processes, which is the effect of electrical charge on clouds. Charge is created in the atmosphere by ionisation from Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) (highly energetic particles from outside our solar system). When GCRs approach Earth, they are deflected by both the Solar and Earth's magnetic field, which act as a selective energy barrier to GCRs. The sun's magnetic field varies mainly on an 11 year timescale, therefore GCR fluxes, and thus charge in the atmosphere is controlled by solar activity. Due to constant vertical flow of charge in the atmosphere, charge accumulates at the upper and lower boundaries of layer clouds (the very common sort of clouds that you see on an overcast day). The charge sticks to the cloud droplets, which is thought to influence the behaviour of the droplets, such as how they grow and stick together, which can be seen in large scale cloud properties like cloud height. Since such clouds control heating and cooling in the atmosphere, and cover around 40% of the Earth's surface at one time, charge effects on clouds may have implications for climate. My research will investigate the factors that control charge in the atmosphere, determine whether charge plays a role in cloud processes, and ultimately determine whether this is important for climate.In order to characterise the factors controlling charge in the atmosphere, and the typical charge present inside layer clouds, measurements will be made using a suite of newly developed sensors which have been designed to fly alongside conventional weather balloons. These lightweight, disposable sensors provide a cost effective method of obtaining extra science data above the surface, from weather balloons which are already being launched around the world by global meteorological services. These airborne measurements will be combined with surface measurements of charge and atmospheric electricity at various sites around the world to understand the global response of charge to changes in solar variability. Such measurements are rare and are vital to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for modulating vertical charge flow and therefore coupling between Space Weather and the lower atmosphere. This topic sits at the intersection of physics and meteorology and presents an opportunity to investigate processes that we are still very much in our infancy of understanding. There is a great deal of exciting and potentially very important fundamental research to be done in this field, which will ultimately help us to understand whether these new processes are relevant to climate.