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The cloud chamber and CTR Wilson's legacy to atmospheric science
Author(s) -
Harrison Giles
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.467
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1477-8696
pISSN - 0043-1656
DOI - 10.1002/wea.830
Subject(s) - cloud chamber , electricity , meteorology , atmospheric electricity , cloud computing , atmospheric physics , environmental science , physics , atmospheric sciences , atmosphere (unit) , engineering , political science , electrical engineering , law , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , electric field
Charles Thomas Rees (‘CTR’) Wilson (1869–1959) received the 1927 Nobel Prize for the cloud chamber, first described in a paper published a century ago. The cloud chamber makes high energy particles visible. Wilson's principal work was in atmospheric electricity at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, and his scientific legacy is both to particle physics and atmospheric science. In atmospheric electricity Wilson provided the ‘global circuit’ concept with which to understand the current flow between disturbed weather and fair weather regions elsewhere. The cloud chamber remains actively used in physics education and the global circuit is central in atmospheric electricity research. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society