Sixth Form Scientists Head to Imperial

On Wednesday evening 20 Lower and Upper Sixth Formers headed up to Imperial College, London to attend an evening lecture. Prof Helen Brindley, Professor in Earth Observation, Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial; Divisional Director within the UK’s National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), presented under the title ‘Understanding how Earth is losing its cool’ which focussed on her work and research on measuring how heat is lost and gained from the Earth’s atmosphere. Prof Brindley outlined the evidence for the rising temperatures observed over the past decades and how the future outcomes were currently uncertain as they depend on policy, action and modelling. Her department aims to improve the data gathered so that predictions about the future can be more accurate. The methods she outlined included ground-based observations, those taken by specially equipped aircraft and even the launch in the next few years of a European Space Agency space mission. FORUM (Far infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring) will hopefully be launched in 2027. The students were all engaged by the talk and had the chance afterwards to ask questions of Prof Brindley.