by Tim Crosby
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The sun’s impact on Earth’s climate is the topic of the next talk in a series at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, focused on the sun and the major role it plays in the lives of humans.
Events and activities held at the Student Center for the incoming SIU students.
The “Journey to the Sun” series continues on Friday, Oct. 25, with “The Sun’s Role in the Earth’s Climate,” a talk by Justin Schoof, founding director of the School of Earth Systems and Sustainability and a professor in the geography and environmental resources program at SIU.
The free talk is set for 3 p.m. at Guyon Auditorium in Morris Library. The monthly series will continue through April and will be streamed online.
The Earth’s climate is a dynamic system responding in complex ways to changes in the amount of energy received and lost. Our sun is the primary source of energy to the system and initiates variations in climate across different timescales.
“In this talk, we will explore how climate-system processes can alter the climate response, sometimes in surprising ways that are different than what we’d expect,” Schoof said.
Schoof earned both his master’s degree and doctorate from Indiana University and joined the SIU faculty in 2006 following a postdoctoral appointment at Florida State University. His teaching and research interests focus on climate variability and change, with a focus on scale interactions and extremes.
“Journey to the Sun” is modeled on the previous talk series, “Journey to the Eclipse,” which ran in the months leading up to the April 8 total solar eclipse in Southern Illinois. It is part of SIU’s SolarSTEAM effort, a multifaceted, national heliophysics public engagement program.
The next talk is Dec. 6 with Peggy Hill, emerita professor of physics at Southeast Missouri State University and NASA Solar System Ambassador, “Space Weather: The Sun-Earth Connection.” Additional talks are scheduled for Jan. 31, Feb. 28, March 28 and April 25.