Atmospheric Phenomena By Professor Carolin Crawford

Astronomers are often also keen observers of atmospheric phenomena – probably stemming from an ingrained habit of keeping a weather eye on the sky in case it’s going to be clear that evening!

Such phenomena are illustrations of physics – and particularly optics – in action. The incoming sunlight, moonlight and starlight fall on the Earth, and the myriad of different ways it interacts with the air molecules, particles, water droplets, ice crystals and dust in our atmosphere cause it to be reflected, refracted, diffracted, dispersed, absorbed and scattered to produce a whole host of spectacular mirages and effects. Many of these apparitions are relatively predictable, some occur commonly; while others are so rare that you are very fortunate if you ever witness them.

You may have already noticed some of the atmospheric phenomena I shall be talking about, but didn’t really think about what you were observing; others you might have missed because you weren’t alert to them, or to the kind of conditions that might create them. In this talk I hope to make you more aware of what the sky has to offer, just a bit closer to home.

Bio: Carolin Crawford is an observational astronomer with over twenty years of active research experience, carried out alongside – and later eclipsed by – a growing role in the public communication of science. She was the Professor of Astronomy for Gresham College (2011 – 2015) and the Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy, at Cambridge University before taking retirement last year. Nowadays most of her observing is undertaken from the back garden rather than from remote mountaintops, or satellites in space.

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