Imperial College Space and Atmospheric Physics

News Page



 October 2001

This month's news stories:

SPAT in Guinness Book of Records
Claire Smith Wins RCS Prize


This month's news.......

Comet Hyakutake / Geraint Jones

An artist's impression of the Ulysses encounter with Comet Hyakutake (source: David Hardy/PPARC) with Geraint Jones pictured in the inset.

A World Record for SPAT

Among the many weird and wonderful world records catalogued yearly by the world-famous Guinness Book of World Records, there are also serious and solid achievements in many endeavours. We are proud to announce that this year's edition recognises the discovery by Dr. Geraint Jones, a member of our group since 1997, of comet Hyakutake's extremely long tail in the magnetic field observations made by our group's instrument on the ESA/NASA Ulysses space mission (SPAT News April 2000). The quotation is:

"LONGEST MEASURED COMET TAIL
The longest comet tail ever measured was 570 million km (350 million miles) long and belonged to the comet Hyakutake. This is more than three times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The tail was discovered by Geraint Jones of Imperial College, London, UK, on 13 Sept 1999, using data gathered by the ESA/NASA spacecraft Ulysses on a chance encounter with the comet on 1 May 1996."

The discovery was already proudly announced to the scientific world last year, in the journal Nature, but with the greater (and considerably wider) readership of the Guinness Book of World Records, Geraint's achievement is now brought to a much larger and popular audience. It is only appropriate that Geraint should be the discoverer, as he has had a long term interest in comets, in addition to being a key member of our heliospheric research team. His discovery also shows the richness of our space observations that can yield such unexpected results. Our congratulations to Geraint for this rare and popular recognition of his dedication to both cometary and heliospheric sciences !

André Balogh 31st October 2001


Claire SmithSPAT Student Wins RCS Prize

We are delighted that Claire Smith, pictured right, who has just completed her Ph.D. in atmospheric physics, has been awarded the RCS Prize. This is awarded annually to a student within the Royal College of Science who has achieved not only academic excellence but also contributed to the wider college community.

Claire's research work has concerned how observed changes in stratospheric water vapour may contribute to climate change. This has involved three separate studies firstly a statistical analysis of a complex and noisy dataset of satellite observations of water vapour; secondly understanding and use of atmospheric radiative transfer codes to calculate climate radiative forcing and thirdly simulations of the effects of the water vapour increases in two different climate models. Her work has already resulted in two published papers, which have received international attention (SPAT News July 2000) and been referenced widely, and a third in draft. She also managed to complete the work, write the thesis, and sit the oral examination within 3 years of registration!

Claire is a talented sportswoman. She played rugby for IC's successful women's team and for the London Welsh club and was selected for Middlesex and for South-East England. She has also acted as tour manager for the IC squad and the website manager for both the IC women's rugby club and for London Welsh. She has participated in several charity sporting events including recently a 5km run and 5km swimathon.

Claire is also an active musician. She sang in the chorus for the University of London Opera Group and IC Operatic Society - recently performing in "HMS Pinafore" on tour in Devon. She has also played euphonium for IC Winds.

As if this wasn't enough to keep her busy Claire helps to run a Girl Guide Company. This involves one evening a week's commitment as well as occasional weekly or weekend trips on camping expeditions.

Claire is about to take off on a world tour before returning to look for employment in management consultancy. Lucky managers!

Jo Haigh 22nd October 2001


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Revised 31st October 2001
Maintained by R. J. Forsyth