Ray Morris 5 Nov 2009
Thursday 5 November 2009, 11:30 am
Science In The Spotlight
Ray Morris (IOAC): Polar ice aerosol clouds at the edge of space: linkage to climate processes and change
The mesosphere region which lies at the edge of space is the coldest layer of the Earth's atmosphere with summer temperatures as low as minus 130 °C. In this extreme environment ice-aerosol layers have appeared since the dawn of industrialisation – whose existence may arguably be linked to human influence – on yet another layer of the Earths' fragile atmosphere. Ground and space based experiments conducted in the Arctic and Antarctic during the International Polar Year (IPY) aimed to address limitations in our knowledge and to advance our understanding of thermal and dynamical processes at play in the polar mesosphere.
