From 12th to 14th of June 50 scientists from 9 institutions discussed about the most recent findings in chemistry-climate modelling with the model system EMAC.

Erstmals umfassendes Bild der Schwefeldioxidbelastung in der Stratosphäre/ 10 Jahre Messzeit an Bord von ENVISAT / keine menschengemachten Quellen des Schwefeldioxid identifizierbar. 

Beitrag von Prof. Dr. Johannes Orphal in der Zeitschrift "Wirtschaftswoche".

Mixing ratios of species like ClO, NO2, and N2O5, measured by the balloon-borne MIPAS instrument in January 2010 in the Arctic, show significant changes around sunrise which are temporally delayed due to polar stratospheric clouds reducing the direct radiative flux from the sun. ClO variations were derived the first time from MIPAS-B spectra. Results have been published recently in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics by scientists from three institutes at KIT.

GLORIA Measures Highly Resolved Distributions of Atmospheric Trace Gases on Board of the New HALO Research Aircraft

Interview mit Prof. Dr. Johannes Orphal in der Zeitschrift „Focus“ 

Hohe Auszeichnung für den KIT-Wissenschaftler: Das internationale Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) verleiht dem früheren Leiter des Instituts für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung (IMK) des KIT, Professor Herbert Fischer, die William Nordberg Medal 2012. Damit würdigt COSPAR Fischers herausragende Leistungen in der Atmosphärenforschung. Er gilt weltweit als einer der Pioniere der Fourier-Transformations-Infrarot-Spektrometrie, mit der sich die Konzentration von Spurengasen in der Atmosphäre bestimmen lässt, die unter anderem Auswirkungen auf den Treibhauseffekt haben. Fischer ist der erste deutsche Wissenschaftler, der die Medaille erhält.  

Interview with Prof. Dr. Johannes Orphal in the journal "Wirtschaftswoche"

Unusually cold stratospheric temperatures lead to record large Arctic ozone loss during Winter 2010/2011. The detailed mechanisms leading to the formation of this first Arctic ozone hole have now been published in Geophysical Research Letters by a team of scientists from the KIT Institute for Meteorologie and Climate Research (IMK).

To the KIT Press Release

Präzise Messungen der Atmosphäre sind für Vorhersagen des Klimawandels und seiner Folgen, wie sie zurzeit auf der Weltklimakonferenz in Durban diskutiert werden, unentbehrlich. Eine Forschergruppe aus Jülich und Karlsruhe startet daher am 6. Dezember in Nordschweden ein einzigartiges Experiment: Das Instrument GLORIA fliegt erstmals mit dem russischen Forschungsflugzeug „Geophysica“ und beobachtet klimarelevante Gase und atmosphärische Bewegungen mit bisher unerreichter Genauigkeit. Diese Messungen tragen zu wesentlich verbesserten Klimamodellen bei.

The subtropical transport barrier restricts air exchange between the tropical and the mid-latitudinal stratosphere.

HDO from observations by Envisat/MIPAS, Odin/SMR, and SCISAT/ACE-FTS has been compared for all seasons and different altitudes.

Auftakt zur neuen Veranstaltungsreihe: Rund 140 Zuhörer kamen am 18. Oktober zur ersten KIT Climate Lecture in den Gartensaal des Karlsruher Schlosses.

Results of a cooperative effort of the international community interested in the effects of "High Energetic Particle Precipitation in the Atmosphere" (HEPPA) on the chemistry of the middle atmosphere during the 2003 "Halloween" solar proton event have been published recently.

To answer this question IMK collaborates with Météo France.

MIPAS provides first global day- and nighttime temperature and NO measurements in the thermosphere

MIPAS observations of H2O2 during the Solar Proton Event in January 2005 indicate deficiencies in HOx modeling. 

Atmosphärenwissenschaftler einer Forschergruppe der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) haben bei ihrem Jahrestreffen Ende Mai am KIT die neuesten Entwicklungen der stratosphärischen Ozonschicht diskutiert.

The first tropospheric HDO/H2O measurements applying an operational meteorological satellite instrument (IASI on METOP) have been reported. The new dataset is expected to reduce uncertainties in atmospheric water cycle modeling.

The IMK-ASF investigates the ability for air quality measurements of a projected thermal infrared (TIR) nadir sounder in a geostationary orbit.

Scientists of the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) has observed a record stratospheric polar ozone loss over the Arctic.

To press release (in german)

High energetic solar protons from solar flares and coronal mass ejections affect the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere in the stratospheric and mesospheric altitude regions by ionization, formation of NOx and HOx, and, subsequently, ozone destruction.

Professor Dr Johannes Orphal, Director of the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research at KIT, calls for greater European efforts to tackle environmental changes…

pdf copy of the article in the journal "Science and Technology".

has been investigated with MIPAS-Envisat data for the first time.

Long data sets as needed in climate research without any inhomogeneities are sparse. Thus, a method to deal with data inhomogeneities has been developed at IMK.

How measurements provide the basis to understand climate variability.

Pdf copy of the article in the journal "Public Service Review".

MIPAS provides first observational evidence of the coupling from the lower atmosphere to the thermosphere during a major stratospheric warming.

KIT Scientists Disprove Doubts in Ozone Hole Chemistry.

KIT-Wissenschaftler gewinnt Starting Independent Researcher Grant des Europäischen Forschungsrates.

Oxidation of hydrogen contributes by ~ 0.4 ppm to the water vapour budget in the equatorial upper stratosphere

Am 20.04.2010 startete das Forschungslabor CARIBIC (Bild) einen Messflug auf einem modifizierten Passagierflugzeug (Airbus A340-600) von Lufthansa. Ziel ist die Vermessung der isländischen Vulkanaschewolke im Luftraum zwischen Frankfurt und Skandinavien in Höhen von 3 bis 8 km. CARIBIC ist ein Konsortium aus zwölf Forschungsinstitutionen aus sechs europäischen Ländern. Das Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung (IMK) am KIT betreibt fünf der fünfzehn eingebauten Messinstrumente. Insgesamt werden ca. 100 Spurengase und Eigenschaften von Aerosolpartikeln gemessen. Die Wissenschaftler erhoffen sich bei dem Messflug genauere Informationen über die Höhenverteilung und der Partikelzusammensetzung der isländischen Vulkanaschewolke. Mehr Informationen zum CARIBIC-Projekt.

provide constraints on the role of convection for dehydration processes near the tropical tropopause

Press release (only available in german)

as seen by MLS/Aura and MIPAS/Envisat.

mapped by MIPAS HCN and C2H6.

Embedded in the RECONCILE campaign the aircraft version of MIPAS has participated in all 8 flights of the Russian research aircraft Geophysica that can approach altitudes of up to 20 km. The objective of the measurements is to improve model representations of key processes dominating chemistry, microphysics and dynamics of Arctic stratospheric ozone loss.

confirm the established polar chlorine chemistry, relevant for the springtime Arctic ozone destruction.

On 24.1.2010 at 1:46 the MIPAS/TELIS/mini-DOAS balloon payload was launched from Kiruna / Sweden to a 13 hrs flight into the core of the cold activated polar vortex to measure diurnal variations of chlorine and bromine species and for validating satellite measurements.

Press release (in german).

show that polluted air is trapped in the Asian monsoon anticyclone near the tropopause.

Comparisons of polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) observations between passive (MIPAS/Envisat) and active (CALIPSO) space-borne remote sensing instruments show a high degree of consistency.

The MIPAS-STR instrument, a MIPAS version that is tailored to operation on the Russian high-flying (up to 21 km) Geophysica aircraft is currently participating in an international test campaign. The aircraft is based in Oberpfaffenhofen/Germany from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3. The test camapaign is sort of a rehearsal for a large mission scheduled for early 2010 in the framework of the EU-funded project  RECONCILE, that aims at a deeper understanding of chemistry-climate relationsships and more reliable predictions of future ozone.

The MIPAS water vapour profiles retrieved at IMK (version 13) have been validated in an altitude range from 15-50 km by intercomparison with numerous independent in situ and remote measurements.

Dr. Miriam Sinnhuber and her group „Solar Variability, Climate, and the Role of the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere“ will investigate the influence of solar variablity on climate. 

Scientists of the IMK-ASF validate new space-borne measurements of the tropospheric water vapour isotopy.

From Tuesday 13 to Thursday 15 October 2009 the VIth MIPAS-IMK/IAA DATA USER MEETING will be held at IMK, FZK, Karlsruhe.

Since 1st of September 2009 the IMK-ASF website is published in a new design.