Space Physics an Environmental Science?
Thomas Ulich
Geophysical Observatory, FIN-99600 Sodankylä, Finland
Abstract
At least since the 1920s people are trying to understand how the Sun
affects life on Earth. Nowadays the changing climate has become one of
the most urgent topics to cover for many sciences such as meteorology,
chemistry, physics, biology, and anthropology. One of today's key
questions is how much of the observed changes are anthropogenic and how
much is forced from outside, i.e. from the Sun. The expertise of space
physics, developed over decades, finds new applications in the quest of
understanding long-term changes in the upper atmosphere and their
interactions with the lower atmosphere and human life on Earth. Studies
based on existing long-term records of relevant data are discussed and
some open questions are addressed. The future plan for collaborative
research between the Sodankylä Observatory of the Finnish Meteorological
Institute and the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory is introduced.