astronomy

Joyce E. Penner

Joyce E. Penner is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Joyce E. Penner rather than just read about it. In short: Joyce Penner is an atmospheric scientist known for her research on climate change, especially on the impact of aerosols and clouds. Education and career Penner has a B.A. in mathematics from the University of California Santa Barbara (1970), and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harvard University (1972 and 1977, respectively).

Key takeaways

Joyce E. Penner belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Joyce E. Penner to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Joyce E. Penner from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Joyce Penner is an atmospheric scientist known for her research on climate change, especially on the impact of aerosols and clouds.

Education and career Penner has a B.A. in mathematics from the University of California Santa Barbara (1970), and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harvard University (1972 and 1977, respectively). Penner moved to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1977 and remained there until 1996, serving as a group leader from 1987 until her departure for University of Michigan in 1996. At the University of Michigan, Penner was named the Ralph J. Cicerone Distinguished University Professor of Atmospheric Science in 2007. Penner has contributed to multiple reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its series of assessment reports. Penner was the coordinating lead author for chapter 5 on "Aerosols, their Direct and Indirect Effects" within the 2001 Assessment Report 3, Working Group 1 (AR3 WG1), and one of 18 lead authors for the technical summary of that same report. In 2007, she was one of 7 lead authors for chapter 9 on "Understanding and attributing climate change". In 2013, she served as a review editor for chapter 7 (Clouds and aerosols, and for the technical summary. She was also one of the contributing authors for the 1995 IPCC report. Penner was the president of the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union from 2017 to 2018. Since 2019 she has been the president of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences.

Research Penner's research interests focus on climate modeling, specifically the representation of aerosols in global climate models. Through her research, Penner has shown that the composition of aerosols impacts whether particles will increase or decrease global temperatures. For example, her investigation into how biomass burning produces aerosols concluded that smoke from burning tropical forests may cause cooling by an indirect effect because of the formation of droplets that reflect sunlight away from Earth's surface. Within her climate models, Penner has examined the role of nitrogen compounds and her research revealed that the nitric acid produced by supersonic aircraft (e.g., the Concorde) can lead to decreases in atmospheric ozone concentrations. She has also defined the uncertainties associated with modeling indirect aerosol forcing, including a consideration of differences across a suite of models. This indirect aerosol effect impacts the amount of radiation received at Earth's surface which is a function of how aerosol particles are formed.

Selected publications Penner, J. E.; Dickinson, R. E.; O'Neill, C. A. (1992-06-05). "Effects of Aerosol from Biomass Burning on the Global Radiation Budget". Science. 256 (5062): 1432–1434. Bibcode:1992Sci...256.1432P. doi:10.1126/science.256.5062.1432. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17791612. S2CID 44613556. Taylor, K. E.; Penner, J. E. (June 1994). "Response of the climate system to atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases". Nature. 369 (6483): 734–737. Bibcode:1994Natur.369..734T. doi:10.1038/369734a0. S2CID 4262188. Tegen, Ina; Hollrig, Peter; Chin, Mian; Fung, Inez; Jacob, Daniel; Penner, Joyce (1997). "Contribution of different aerosol species to the global aerosol extinction optical thickness: Estimates from model results". Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 102 (D20): 23895–23915. Bibcode:1997JGR...10223895T. doi:10.1029/97JD01864. Penner, J.E.; Andreae, M.O.; Annegarn, H.; Barrie, L.; Feichter, J.; Hegg, D.; Jayaraman, A.; Leaitch, R.; Murphy, D.; Nganga, J.; Pitari, G. (2001). "Aerosols, their Direct and Indirect Effects". Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: 289–348. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0014-921E-5.

Awards and honors Fellow, American Geophysical Union (1999) Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009) Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award, California Air Resources Board (2016)

References

External links Joyce E. Penner publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Joyce E. Penner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Joyce E. Penner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Joyce E. Penner before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Joyce E. Penner ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Joyce E. Penner

In research: Joyce E. Penner appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Joyce E. Penner in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Joyce E. Penner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American climatologists, Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellows of the American Geophysical Union, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Joyce E. Penner outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Joyce E. Penner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Joyce E. Penner means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Joyce E. Penner in simple terms?

Joyce Penner is an atmospheric scientist known for her research on climate change, especially on the impact of aerosols and clouds. Education and career Penner has a B.A. in mathematics from the University of California Santa Barbara (1970), and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harva…

Why does Joyce E. Penner matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Joyce E. Penner?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Joyce E. Penner.