Weather/Climate Versus Space Weather/Space Climate

Jia Yue

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Physics Department, The Catholic University of America

Wed, January 22, 2020 - 4:00 PM
Karl Herzfeld Auditorium of Hannan Hall - Rm 108

In this talk, I will present evidence of the connections between severe weather and climate change happening in the troposphere and space weather and space climate change in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. These investigations are multidisciplinary, involving multiple NASA Earth Science and Heliophysics missions, and Whole Atmosphere Models developed by NCAR. The first example is the Transient Luminescent Emissions (TLEs) such as sprites, haloes, elves, and gigantic jets happening in the D-region ionosphere, excited by lightnings in thunderstorms on the Great Plains and Hurricanes. The second example will show the coupling of AIRS stratospheric gravity waves, VIIRS mesospheric gravity waves with the disturbances in the ionosphere (300-500 km), which could cause malfunctions in radio communication. The third example will show how the anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases (CO2, methane and H2O from MLS, SABER and other satellite measurements) could drive both global warming in the troposphere and global cooling in the middle and upper atmosphere. As more hot months are recorded in the world, space debris in the thermosphere will linger much longer time causing more problems for future LEO satellites.

Refreshments served at 3:45 PM

If you have any questions about the Colloquium Series  or would like to make a donation please contact the Physics Department, cua-physics@cua.edu or (202) 319-5315.