Astrophysics meets climate: interdisciplinary perspectives

What can studying the stars and galaxies teach us about Earth’s past climate - and help us understand its changing future?

On 18 August 2026, Professor Ilya Mandel and Dr Thavisha Dharmawardena from the School of Physics and Astronomy explored how methods developed in astrophysics can be applied to climate and environmental science. From reconstructing ancient temperatures using marine sediments to mapping sea ice, storms and smoke plumes, this joint seminar showed how computational modelling, statistical techniques and machine learning can bridge astrophysics and climate science and open new opportunities for interdisciplinary research.