Arthur Few, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, presented a poster paper, “Ice Nuclei Production in Volcanic Clouds,” at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), which convened in San Francisco Dec 3-7. The paper explores the relationships among water vapor bubbles in the explosive volcanic magma, the production of very small ash particles (about 50 micrometers), the action of the small-ash particles in the nucleation of ice in the upper regions of volcanic clouds and the role of ice in the production of lightning from upper regions of volcanic clouds. The poster paper can be downloaded as a PDF file from www.ruf.rice.edu/~few/. Also, a writer for AGU interviewed Few; the interview is at http://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2012/12/04/fiery-volcanos-seed-lightning-generating-ice/.
Posted in: Current News– January 7, 2013