Climate researcher Kathrin Höppner
Climate researcher Kathrin Höppner
Kathrin Höppner is a staff member of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (Deutsches Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum; DFD). She researches an atmospheric layer known as "airglow", located at an altitude of around 87 kilometres above the Earth's surface. The temperature up there is about minus 70 degrees Celsius on average and the air density is a million times lower than it is close to the Earth's surface. Climate researchers take a special interest in this layer, as they assume that climate changes can be observed there both earlier and more intensely than on the ground. Data obtained at this altitude provide a firm basis for understanding the processes taking place in our atmosphere, and especially for drawing up climate models.
