Giles Harrison
{{short description|Professor of Atmospheric Physics}}
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Giles Harrison is a professor of Atmospheric Physics in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, where he has served as head of department several times. He is a visiting professor at the Universities of Bath and Oxford. His research work continues over 250 years of UK studies in atmospheric electricity, in its modern form an interdisciplinary topic at the intersection of aerosol and cloud physics, solar-climate and internal-climate interactions, scientific sensor development and the retrieval of quantitative data from historical sources.
Education
He was educated at Marling School Stroud, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He holds doctorates from Imperial College London (PhD 1992), and the University of Cambridge (ScD 2014).{{Cite web|title=Academy of Europe: CV|url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Harrison_R_Giles/CV|access-date=2021-09-28|website=ae-info.org}}
Research activity
A major part of Harrison's work has focused on the charging of atmospheric particles and droplets and the effect of charge on their behaviour, for which he has pioneered new instruments and methods. This has included applying early atmospheric electrical data for reconstruction of past air pollution{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2002/sep/12/research.science|title=Deciphering the sparks|last=Ravilious|first=Kate|date=12 September 2002|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-11-07|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} and in investigating the electrical effect of solar changes{{Cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727793-100-the-sun-joins-the-climate-club/|website=New Scientist|title=The sun joins the climate club|access-date=2019-11-07}} on the Earth's and other atmospheres.{{Cite web|url=https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/secrets-of-neptune-s-atmosphere|title=Secrets of Neptune's atmosphere|website=Cosmos Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-11-07}} His experimental work has clearly demonstrated the widespread presence of atmospheric charge in regions well away from thunderstorms, particularly at horizontal edges of layer clouds. Motivated by the need to increase in situ atmospheric measurements of these phenomena using sensitive balloon-carried instrumentation,{{Cite web|url=http://www.reading.ac.uk/met/stories/met-giles-harrison.aspx|title=Professor Giles Harrison: finding novel ways to study the natural world|website=|access-date=}} Harrison and his co-workers have provided some unique atmospheric measurements. These include turbulence data able to be applied beyond Earth to Titan’s atmosphere,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassinif-20070828.html|title=NASA – Fasten Your Seat Belts, Turbulence Ahead – Lessons From Titan|website=nasa.gov|language=en|access-date=2019-11-07}} the first published airborne measurements of the Icelandic volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/5/100527-science-environment-iceland-volcano-ash-electric-flights/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109001726/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/5/100527-science-environment-iceland-volcano-ash-electric-flights/|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 November 2020|title=Electric Ash Found in Iceland Plume Miles From Volcano|date=29 May 2010|website=National Geographic News}} which were undertaken in UK airspace at government request during the April 2010 flight ban,{{Cite web|url=https://www.reading.ac.uk/15/research/Impact/res-impactash.aspx|title=Volcanic ash|website=|access-date=}} direct evidence for unexpected enhancement of ionisation in the lower atmosphere during a solar storm,{{Cite journal|date=2 June 2014|title=Synopsis: Unexpected Impact from Medium-Sized Solar Flare|journal=Physics|volume=112|issue=22|pages=225001|language=en|doi=10.1103/physrevlett.112.225001|pmid=24949773|last1=Nicoll|first1=K. A.|last2=Harrison|first2=R. G.|doi-access=free}} and observations of charge made opportunistically within a dust layer transported to the UK by the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia.{{Cite web|url=https://physicsworld.com/a/dust-plume-in-red-sun-event-was-highly-charged/|title=Dust plume in 'red sun' event was highly charged|date=25 June 2018|website=Physics World|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-11-07}} Analysis, with co-workers, of historical weather and atmospheric electricity data from Shetland during the 1960s nuclear weapons tests, has associated this additional ionisation with increased rainfall.{{Cite web|last1=Perkins|first1=Sid|date=13 May 2020|title=Can nuclear fallout make it rain?|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/can-nuclear-fallout-make-it-rain|access-date=2020-10-25|website=Science {{!}} AAAS|language=en}}
Other work
Beyond atmospheric electricity and atmospheric measurements, Harrison conceived and led the National Eclipse Weather Experiment.{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.royalsociety.org/publishing/the-2015-solar-eclipse/|title=Philosophical Transactions A: The 2015 solar eclipse {{!}} Publishing blog {{!}} Royal Society|website=blogs.royalsociety.org|access-date=2019-11-07}} This Citizen Science project associated with the 2015 solar eclipse involved up to 3500 pupils and teachers nationally,{{Cite journal|last1=Portas|first1=Antonio M.|last2=Barnard|first2=Luke|last3=Scott|first3=Chris|last4=Harrison|first4=R. Giles|date=28 September 2016|title=The National Eclipse Weather Experiment: use and evaluation of a citizen science tool for schools outreach|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences|volume=374|issue=2077|pages=20150223|doi=10.1098/rsta.2015.0223|pmc=5004053|pmid=27550761|bibcode=2016RSPTA.37450223P}} promoted through the BBC's Stargazing Live.{{Citation|title=Stargazing Live: Eclipse data collectors wanted - BBC News School Report|newspaper=School Report|date=23 February 2015|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/31591588|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-11-07}} He subsequently edited a themed journal issue,{{Cite web|url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rsta/2016/374/2077|title=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences: Vol 374, No 2077|website=royalsocietypublishing.org|language=en|access-date=2019-11-07}} bringing together new findings in "eclipse meteorology". He also contributed to the successful campaign of the Cloud Appreciation Society to persuade the World Meteorological Organization to classify the first new cloud since 1951, asperitas, through convening an international team which suggested a mechanism for its formation.{{Cite web|url=https://eos.org/articles/science-explains-rough-and-chaotic-cloud-feature|title=Science Explains "Rough and Chaotic" Cloud Feature|website=Eos|date=6 June 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-07}}
Publications
He has authored or co-authored about 300 papers,https://www.ae-info.org/attach/User/Harrison_R_Giles/Publications/Pubs.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}} co-edited Planetary Atmospheric Electricity{{Cite book|url=https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780387876634|title=Planetary Atmospheric Electricity {{!}} François Leblanc {{!}} Springer|isbn=9780387876634|publisher=Springer|year=2008|series=Space Sciences Series of ISSI|volume=30|doi=10.1007/978-0-387-87664-1}} and his successful postgraduate textbook on meteorological measurements{{Cite book|title=Meteorological measurements and instrumentation|last=Harrison|first=R. G. |isbn=9781118745809|oclc=903279597|date = 20 January 2015|publisher=John Wiley & Sons }} is now available in Chinese.
Recognition
Harrison was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2014.{{cite web | url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Harrison_R_Giles | title=Academy of Europe: Harrison R Giles }} He is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. In 2011 he was the Bill Bright lecturer at the International Electrostatics Conference.{{Cite journal|doi=10.1088/1742-6596/301/1/011001|title=13th International Conference on Electrostatics|year=2011|last1=Taylor|first1=D. Martin|journal=Journal of Physics: Conference Series|volume=301|page=011001|doi-access=free}} In 2016 he was awarded the Edward Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics, and he is the winner of the 2021 Christiaan Huygens Medal awarded by the European Geosciences Union.{{Cite web|url=http://www.iop.org/about/awards/silver/applied-and-environmental-physics/appleton-medallists/page_67622.html|title=EGU announces its 2021 awards and medals!|access-date=2020-10-22|archive-date=2016-12-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220115808/http://www.iop.org/about/awards/silver/applied-and-environmental-physics/appleton-medallists/page_67622.html|url-status=dead}} He chairs the Royal Meteorological Society's Special Interest Group on atmospheric electricity .
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Academics of the University of Reading
Category:English meteorologists