astronomy

Owen Toon

Owen Toon 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 Owen Toon rather than just read about it. In short: Owen Brian Toon (born May 26, 1947 in Bethesda, Maryland) is an American professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. He is a fellow at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Owen Brian Toon (born May 26, 1947 in Bethesda, Maryland) is an American professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. He is a fellow at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He received an A.B. in physics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1969 and a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University in 1975 under Carl Sagan. His research interests are in cloud physics, atmospheric chemistry, and radiative transfer. He also works on comparing Earth and other planets such as Venus. His research on the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs led to the discovery of nuclear winter due to the major decrease in temperature. The effects of nuclear winter were re-examined in a 2006 presentation at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, where Toon and colleagues found that even a regional nuclear war could prove deadly for a large number of people. They calculated that as few as fifty detonations of Hiroshima-size bombs could kill as many as twenty million people, although it would not produce a nuclear winter. The atmospheric effects of a regional nuclear war would last several years, and would be strongest at mid-latitudes, including the United States and Europe. He was elected a fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 1990, and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1992. He received the 2011 Roger Revelle Medal from the American Geophysical Union. In 2022, Toon was among eight recipients of the 2022 Future of Life Award. The honor was bestowed upon Toon for "reducing the risk of nuclear war by developing and popularizing the science of nuclear winter."

Selected publications Robertson DS, McKenna MC, Toon OB, et al. (2004). "Survival in the first hours of the Cenozoic". Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 116 (5–6): 760–8. Bibcode:2004GSAB..116..760R. doi:10.1130/B25402.1. S2CID 44010682. Brooks SD, Toon OB, Tolbert MA, et al. (2004). "Polar stratospheric clouds during SOLVE/THESEO: Comparison of lidar observations with in situ measurements". J. Geophys. Res. 109 (D2): D02212. Bibcode:2004JGRD..109.2212B. doi:10.1029/2003JD003463. Colaprete A, Haberle RM, Toon OB (2003). "Formation of convective carbon dioxide clouds near the south pole of Mars". J. Geophys. Res. 108 (E7): 5081. Bibcode:2003JGRE..108.5081C. doi:10.1029/2003JE002053. Colarco PR, Toon OB, Reid JS, et al. (2003). "Saharan dust transport to the Caribbean during PRIDE: 2. Transport, vertical profiles, and deposition in simulations of in situ and remote sensing observations". J. Geophys. Res. 108 (D19): 8590. Bibcode:2003JGRD..108.8590C. doi:10.1029/2002JD002659. Toon OB (2003). "Atmospheric science - African dust in Florida clouds". Nature. 424 (6949): 623–624. Bibcode:2003Natur.424..623T. doi:10.1038/424623a. PMID 12904770. S2CID 4419364. Ackerman AS, Toon OB, Stevens DE, et al. (2003). "Enhancement of cloud cover and suppression of nocturnal drizzle in stratocumulus polluted by haze". Geophys. Res. Lett. 30 (7): 1381. Bibcode:2003GeoRL..30.1381A. doi:10.1029/2002GL016634. hdl:2060/20030000639. S2CID 51943867. Barth EL, Toon OB (2003). "Microphysical modeling of ethane ice clouds in Titan's atmosphere". Icarus. 162 (1): 94–113. Bibcode:2003Icar..162...94B. doi:10.1016/S0019-1035(02)00067-2.

References

External links Brian Toon faculty homepage

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Owen Toon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Owen Toon 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 Owen Toon 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 Owen Toon 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 Owen Toon

In research: Owen Toon 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 Owen Toon 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: Owen Toon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 births, American planetary scientists, Atmospheric chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Owen Toon 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 Owen Toon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Owen Toon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Owen Toon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Owen Toon in simple terms?

Why does Owen Toon 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 Owen Toon?

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 Owen Toon.