Atmospheric physics / geophysics.

[Aerozeppelin]

I'm a 2nd year applied physics student in university and I'm wondering if anyone has advice on careers in atmospheric physics / geophysics.

Although it is controversial I would like to go into the field of research of climate control by injecting volcanic ash into the atmosphere.

Does anyone know how I should go about this?

 

[caldweab]

I would say the career aspects of something like that is bleak at best. Perhaps something like environmental science or engineering would be better suited for you career wise.

 

[lasymphonie]

Have you taken atmospheric physics classes? Aerosol research might be something that interests you in general - maybe check that out. It's also a field where people don't really know that much about how it affects temperature of the Earth (really huge uncertainties) so there's room to make progress.

 

[Astronuc]

I'm a 2nd year applied physics student in university and I'm wondering if anyone has advice on careers in atmospheric physics / geophysics.

Although it is controversial I would like to go into the field of research of climate control by injecting volcanic ash into the atmosphere.

Does anyone know how I should go about this?

Certainly understanding terrestrial atmospheric physics and geophysics are important, as well as being very interesting.

Manipulation of weather and climate has been done, e.g., seeding of clouds. And there are folks who would propose to manipulate climate on a large scale. However, the practicality is questionable, and there are always the potential for unintended (and often unforeseen) consequences.

There are a number of volcanoes that already injected huge volumes of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. It may be more productive to study the impact of specific volcanic eruptions and thereby improve the modeling/simulation and predictive capabilities of models.

See for example - Tungurahua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungurahua
http://www.volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=352080

or others like Merapi (Indonesia), Ubinas (Peru), etc
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports_weekly.cfm

 

[jesse73]

Look into atmospheric or Earth sciences. It is also possible to do in chemistry or physics departments (some scientists in both groups looking into phase transitions/nucleation/etc).