Galactic cosmic rays, aerosols, clouds and climate: Results from the CLOUD project at CERN

Clouds play a major role for the hydrological cycle, the radiation budget and climate on Earth. They are also the largest factor of uncertainty in the scientific understanding and prediction of climate change.

The CLOUD experiment at CERN allows to study aerosol and cloud formation under atmospheric conditions at a new level of precision. A focus of investigations are ioninduced aerosol formation processes using an elementary particle beam from CERN. Here, the potential role of galactic cosmic rays (and their modulation by the sun) for aerosols, clouds and climate is studied. The role of ionization for aerosol formation by different chemical systems of natural and anthropogenic origin is quantified. The experiments therefore yield a new understanding of pre-industrial and present-day aerosol sources and their influences on clouds and climate.

The talk presents an introduction on the role of aerosols and clouds for climate, an overview of the CLOUD chamber at CERN and of the findings from the recent experiments.

Student event: Meet the speaker
We invite you to a student-only discussion-round with Prof. Dr. Joachim Curtius before his Munich Physics Colloquium talk.
Be curious and feel free to ask any question.
Monday, 4 July 2016, 16:00 h
Seminar room PH 3076 (upper floor), Physik-Department der TUM, Garching