Presentation title: “What can an underwater acoustician offer to the space programme?”
Presenter: Prof. Timothy Leighton
Time: 15:00-16:30, May 30, 2018
Location: Academic lecture hall on the 15th floor of the Underwater Acoustic Engineering Building
Short Bio of the presenter:
Timothy Leighton is Professor of Ultrasonics and Underwater Acoustics within the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton, UK. He is an Academician of three National Academies: the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He graduated in 1985 with a Double First Master of Arts (Physics and Theoretical Physics) and, in 1988, a PhD, both from the University of Cambridge. He has won 8 international medals, and 6 awards for invention. The citation of the 2006 Paterson Medal of the Institute of Physics states that “Timothy Leighton’s contribution is outstanding in both breadth and depth. His is an acknowledged world leader in four fields”. In 2017 the Royal Society announced its award to him of the Royal Society Clifford Paterson Medal, the citation being “for translation of his fundamental research into acoustics and its application in many areas including anti-microbial resistance, mine detection, foetal scanning, catastrophe relief, climate change and marine life”. He runs a research group, is the founding Chairman of NAMRIP (the Network for Anti-Microbial Resistance and Infection Prevention) and the founding Chairman of HEFUA (Health Effects of Ultrasound in Air). He advises numerous governmental and international bodies.
Abstract of the presentation:
Exploration of the planets in our solar system, and further afield, requires expertise from many disciplines. Understanding of the need to include the knowledge and skills of the underwater acoustician into planetary exploration is only just developing.
We have sent many probes to the planets and moons of our solar system, which have delivered a vast library of images that allow us to perceive what other worlds look like – but we have never heard the sound of another world. Similarly, we have sent some acoustical instrumentation to other worlds (for example to measure the speed of sound in an atmosphere and infer its chemical properties), but assumptions that it will behave as it does on Earth need to be validated.
In many ways, understanding of acoustical characteristics of the thick atmosphere of Venus (with a density at ground level that is 6.5% that of water) requires the knowledge of an underwater acoustician as much as a researcher who studies Earth’s atmosphere. And when we discuss probes to study the under-ice oceans of the moons of Jupiter, an underwater acoustician is definitely called for. This lecture explores these topics.
