Les Cowley

Les Cowley is a British natural scientist studying meteorological optics.

Cowley is a retired research scientist. He has a PhD in chemical physics from the University of Edinburgh and he worked on intermolecular forces, dynamics of chemical reactions and combustion phenomena. Since 1970s he started his interest in atmospheric optical phenomena. His interests have moved from the dynamics of chemical reactions, combustion theory and experiments to meteorological optics. He is best known for his computer code HaloSim and for explanation of optical phenomena.

From about 1997, together with Michael Schroeder, they started to develop computer software to simulate optical effects of clouds containg CO2 crystals. Subsequently this code become freeley available as HaloSim software.

Publications

*Les Cowley, Philip Laven and Michael Vollmer, 2005, Rings around the sun and moon: coronae and diffraction, Physics Education, 40, 51-59.

*Philip Laven, Les Cowley and Michael Vollmer, 2005, Farbige Ringe um Mond und Sonne: Koronen, Physik in unserer Zeit, 36, 266.

External links

* [http://www.atoptics.co.uk/ Les Cowley's Atmospheric Optics site]
* [http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/halfeat.htm HaloSim3]