Atmospheric Remote Sensing
Head of the department: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Mayer, Dr. Ralf Meerkötter
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| European Cloud Climatology (ECC): 14-year average (1990-2003) of cloud cover over Europe. | |
Climate and chemistry of the atmosphere are affected by a variety of parameters, the most important of which are clouds, aerosol, and water vapour. According to IPCC (2007), the feedback of clouds is one of the largest uncertainties in the prediction of future climate. A profound knowledge about these components and their interaction with solar and thermal radiation is therefore mandatory. Satellite observations provide information about spatial distribution and temporal changes of atmospheric quantities and can help to improve our understanding of the cloud-radiation interaction. New instruments like MSG/SEVIRI allow to study the life cycle of clouds with a time resolution of 15 Minutes.
The research of our department concentrates on the development and scientific application of remote sensing algorithms to study water and ice clouds as well as their influence on the radiation in the atmosphere.
Our research topics are:
- Satellite remote sensing of water and ice clouds and water vapour (MSG/SEVIRI, NOAA/AVHRR, ENVISAT/AATSR)
- Radiative transfer theory and development of radiative transfer models
- Quantification of the influence of clouds, aerosols, and trace gases on climate, chemistry, solar energy, and ultraviolet radiation
Our most important tools are the
- One- and three-dimensional radiative transfer models: libRadtran, MYSTIC, MOM
- Cloud classification schemes (APOLLO, MeCiDA) and remote sensing algorithms
- An operational contrail detection algorithm