Eigil Friis-Christensen (29 October 1944 – 21 September 2018) was a Danish

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

specializing in space physics.

Career

Friis-Christensen received a Magisterkonferens (Ph.D. equivalent) in

Geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

from

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

in 1971. In 1972, he was a geophysicist at the Danish Meteorological Institute. His interest in solar activity began in August, in his tent, when he experienced an extreme solar storm:

"I was in Greenland, on my first assignment in my new job as geophysicist at the Danish Meteorological Institute, setting up a chain of magnetometer stations on the west coast... watching ink pens of my recorder going so wild that they nearly tore the paper chart apart -- we had no digital recording at that time -- and I wondered whether such big events could also have an influence in the lower atmosphere, on weather and climate. That storm cut off my contact to the outside world for nine days -- all radio communication was blacked out -- so I had lots of time to reflect on the enormity of the forces at play."

Between 1976 and 1997, he was the Principal Investigator of the

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

Magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, o ...

Array. Between 1991 and 1997, he was Head of the Solar-Terrestrial Physics Division,

Danish Meteorological Institute The Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI; da, Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut) is the official Danish meteorological institute, administrated by the Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate. The institute makes weather forecasts and observati ...

. In 1992, he was also the Project scientist on the first Danish satellite, Ørsted, which was launched February 1999. He was an Adjunct Professor of geophysics and space physics 1996 to 2006 at the

Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics. ...

and has authored over 140 research articles or books. He lectures worldwide; in 2008 he made a presentation at the U.S. National Institute of Aerospace. From 2004 until 2012 Friis-Christensen was Director of the

Danish National Space Center The National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, also known as DTU Space ( da, Institut for Rumforskning og Rumteknologi), is a Danish sector research institute and a part of the Technical University of Denmark. It has a staf ...

Solar activity and climate change

Friis-Christensen's 1991 paper, "Length of the Solar Cycle: An Indicator of Solar Activity Closely Associated with Climate", published in ''Science'', presented his findings on global warming and sun activity correlation. ''The New York Times'' reviewed the ''Science'' article on 5 November 1991, stating, "While the correlation established by Dr. Friis-Christensen and Dr. Lassen falls short of definite proof, a number of scientists nevertheless called it remarkable in its close fit between the solar and temperature trends." Subsequent work with updated data has found that the correlation has not stood up and revealed that it was due to artifacts of the methodology used by Friis-Christensen. In 2009, a number of leading experts, including one Nobel laureate, concluded that the graphs of Friis-Christensen and Svensmark showing apparent correlations between global warming, sunspots and cosmic rays were deeply flawed. Friis-Christensen agreed that any correlation between sunspots and global warming that he may have identified in the 1991 study has since broken down. There is, he said, a clear "divergence" between the sunspots and global temperatures after 1986, which shows that the present warming period cannot be explained by solar activity alone. In 1997, Friis-Christensen and

Henrik Svensmark Henrik Svensmark (born 1958) is a physicist and professor in the Division of Solar System Physics at the Danish National Space Institute (DTU Space) in Copenhagen. He is known for his work on the hypothesis that fewer cosmic rays are an indirect c ...

revived suggestions of a possible link between

galactic cosmic rays Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

and

global climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

assisted by

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...

intensity variation, which they termed cosmoclimatology. In 2002, he became Lead Investigator of

Swarm Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...

. Friis-Christensen gave the Birkeland lecture "Unrest on the sun - storms on the Earth. The magnetic connection" in Oslo on 27 September 2007 .

Awards and honors

* 1995, "Director Ib Henriksens" research prize. * 1995, elected member, executive committee, International Association of Geomagnetism and

Aeronomy Aeronomy is the scientific study of the upper atmosphere of the Earth and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets. It is a branch of both atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics. Scientists specializing in aeronomy, known a ...

, IAGA. * 1996, elected Associate of London's

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

* 2003, Vice-President, executive committee, IAGA * Appointed member, International Steering Committee, Solar-Terrestrial Energy Programme, STEP and S-RAMP. * 2008, Foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

References

External links

Curriculum Vita

Friis-Christensen articles added to NASA Technical Reports Server

Friis-Christensen reports and papers at GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friis-Christensen, Eigil Space scientists 1944 births 2018 deaths Danish geophysicists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences University of Copenhagen alumni Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen