Noctilucent clouds: catching the end of the season

I spotted this nice display of noctilucent clouds last night. I have blogged about these clouds before; as I noted then I don’t observe them seriously, but I do keep an eye out for them. This year it has taken me until nearly the end of the season to see any. People sometimes give theContinue reading Noctilucent clouds: catching the end of the season

The eruption of Calbuco, and its stratospheric aftermath

This year, the annual retreat for some of our staff and Ph.D students has been scheduled at a time when I can go to it. Which is nice, but it does mean that I have to work up a talk on whatever research I am managing to get done. And I was just scratching myContinue reading The eruption of Calbuco, and its stratospheric aftermath

Solar Eclipse: the weather report

As noted in a previous post, we had a nice view of the recent eclipse from Edinburgh, and we also took readings of various meteorological variables as part of Reading University’s NEWEX experiment. The plot below shows the temperature data recorded by some keen meteorology students, along with temperatures and solar irradiance data from ourContinue reading Solar Eclipse: the weather report