Karen Aplin

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Karen Aplin is a British atmospheric and space physicist. She is currently a professor at the University of Bristol. [1] [2] Aplin has made significant contributions to interdisciplinary aspects of space and terrestrial science, in particular the importance of electrical effects on planetary atmospheres. [3] [4] [5] She was awarded the 2021 James Dungey Lectureship of the Royal Astronomical Society. [6]

Contents

Education and research career

After attending The High School, Gloucester, Aplin completed a BSc in Natural Sciences at Durham University in 1997. [7] She was president of Durham University Orchestral Society and received the Norah C. Bowes bequest for the arts. [8] She completed her PhD in experimental atmospheric physics in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading in 2000. She took up research posts at the University of Hertfordshire and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, working on aspects of space and atmospheric instrumentation, before becoming head of the physics laboratories at Oxford University in 2009. In 2018 she moved to the University of Bristol.

Work on atmospheric electricity

Aplin's research has focussed on innovative instrumentation as applied to problems in space and atmospheric science, in particular electrical effects and measurements. She currently maintains the Snowdon space-weather observatory. [9] She has performed experimental work on the atmospheric effects of ions formed by cosmic rays, but has been keen to stress that the formed "particles are too small to act as cloud condensation nuclei", [10] and thus there is unlikely to be a strong cosmic-ray link to global cloud cover.

Her work on atmospheric electricity also extends to the link between volcanoes, lightning and radon gas, [11] [12] [13] and to other solar system bodies, in particular the ultraviolet and galactic cosmic ray effects on Neptune's atmosphere. [14] [15] [16]

In a similarly interdisciplinary spirit, Aplin has researched the influence of the climate and weather on western orchestral composers. [17] [18]

Awards and recognition

2021: James Dungey Lectureship of the Royal Astronomical Society. [6] [19]

2019: Visiting professor at the University of Bath (previously visiting senior research fellow)

2015 – present: Editor of the Journal of Electrostatics

2009 – present: Editor for the open-access journal History of Geo- and Space Sciences [20]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric science</span> Study of the atmosphere, its processes, and its interactions with other systems

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar cycle</span> Periodic change in the Suns activity

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Atmospheric electricity describes the electrical charges in the Earth's atmosphere. The movement of charge between the Earth's surface, the atmosphere, and the ionosphere is known as the global atmospheric electrical circuit. Atmospheric electricity is an interdisciplinary topic with a long history, involving concepts from electrostatics, atmospheric physics, meteorology and Earth science.

Atmospheric escape is the loss of planetary atmospheric gases to outer space. A number of different mechanisms can be responsible for atmospheric escape; these processes can be divided into thermal escape, non-thermal escape, and impact erosion. The relative importance of each loss process depends on the planet's escape velocity, its atmosphere composition, and its distance from its star. Escape occurs when molecular kinetic energy overcomes gravitational energy; in other words, a molecule can escape when it is moving faster than the escape velocity of its planet. Categorizing the rate of atmospheric escape in exoplanets is necessary to determining whether an atmosphere persists, and so the exoplanet's habitability and likelihood of life.

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References

  1. ↑ "Dr Karen Aplin - University of Bristol". research-information.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
  2. ↑ Bristol, University of. "Dr Karen Aplin - Faculty of Engineering". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
  3. ↑ Aplin, Karen L. (2006-01-01). "Atmospheric Electrification in the Solar System". Surveys in Geophysics. 27 (1): 63–108. arXiv: physics/0505123 . Bibcode:2006SGeo...27...63A. doi:10.1007/s10712-005-0642-9. ISSN   1573-0956. S2CID   53647220.
  4. ↑ Aplin, Karen (2013). Electrifying Atmospheres: Charging, Ionisation and Lightning in the Solar System and Beyond. SpringerBriefs in Astronomy. Springer Netherlands. ISBN   9789400766327.
  5. ↑ Leblanc, F.; Aplin, K. L.; Yair, Y.; Harrison, R. G.; Lebreton, J. P.; Blanc, M., eds. (2008). Planetary Atmospheric Electricity. Space Sciences Series of ISSI. Vol. 30. Bibcode:2008pae..book.....L. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-87664-1. ISBN   978-0-387-87663-4. ISSN   1385-7525.
  6. 1 2 Massey, Robert (6 January 2021). "Royal Astronomical Society Honours Stars of Astronomy and Geophysics". News & Press. Royal Astronomical Society . Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  7. ↑ "Class notes". Dunelm. Durham: Durham University (8): 34. 2022.
  8. ↑ "Karen Aplin LinkedIn".
  9. ↑ Bristol, University of. "Snowdon space weather station | Faculty of Engineering | University of Bristol". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
  10. ↑ Davidson, Keay (2005-07-25). "Ice ages linked to galactic position / Study finds Earth may be cooled by movement through Milky Way's stellar clouds". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  11. ↑ Andrews, Robin George (2019-03-29). "Volcanoes! Lightning! And Radioactive Gas, Too". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  12. ↑ Nicoll, Keri; Airey, Martin; Cimarelli, Corrado; Bennett, Alec; Harrison, Giles; Gaudin, Damien; Aplin, Karen; Koh, Kuang Liang; Knuever, Marco; Marlton, Graeme (2019). "First In Situ Observations of Gaseous Volcanic Plume Electrification". Geophysical Research Letters. 46 (6): 3532–3539. Bibcode:2019GeoRL..46.3532N. doi: 10.1029/2019GL082211 . ISSN   1944-8007.
  13. ↑ Perkins, Sid (2019-03-26). "Volcanic lightning may be partially fed by Earth's natural radioactivity". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  14. ↑ Aplin, K. L.; Harrison, R. G. (2016-07-15). "Determining solar effects in Neptune's atmosphere". Nature Communications. 7 (1): 11976. Bibcode:2016NatCo...711976A. doi: 10.1038/ncomms11976 . ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   4947159 . PMID   27417301.
  15. ↑ Ravilious, Kate (2016-08-21). "Neptune – the wildest weather in the solar system". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  16. ↑ "Science Gets to the Bottom Of Neptune's Weird 'Wobbles'". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  17. ↑ Aplin, Karen L.; Williams, Paul D. (2011). "Meteorological phenomena in Western classical orchestral music". Weather. 66 (11): 300–306. Bibcode:2011Wthr...66..300A. doi: 10.1002/wea.765 . ISSN   1477-8696. S2CID   51987799.
  18. ↑ "Musical weather shows climate influence". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  19. ↑ Aplin, Karen (2022). "The charge of the spheres". Astronomy & Geophysics . 63 (4): 12–17. doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atac047.
  20. ↑ "HGSS - Editorial board". www.history-of-geo-and-space-sciences.net. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
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