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Karen Aplin, Space
Science and Technology Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The first observations of
lightning on Jupiter from the Voyager spacecraft in the 1970s showed that
thunderstorms are not restricted to Earth. Since then lightning has been
photographed and its radio emissions recorded from Saturn and Venus as well as
Jupiter. Lightning is atmospheric electricity at its most spectacular, but
smaller-scale electrical processes occur continually in all planetary
atmospheres. This talk will give a whistle-stop tour of the science behind
lightning and related phenomena in the Solar System.
Karen took her first degree in
Applied Physics and Philosophy at the University of Durham and then studied for
a PhD at the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading. Since 2001, she
has worked as a research physicist at the Space Science and Technology
Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. You may also have seen her playing
double bass with the Henley Symphony Orchestra! |
