2025

Prof Dr Robert Sausen

On 4 January 2025, our colleague of many years, Prof Dr Robert Sausen, passed away unexpectedly at the age of just 69.

DLR impulse project ELK

ELK: Mapping the national, regional & global emissions of transport

In the DLR impulse project EmissionsLandKarte, the interdisciplinary competences of the DLR were combined through the cooperation of 24 institutes under the leadership of the IPA and the Institute of Transport Research (Berlin) in order to quantify the emissions of transport and related sectors.

DLR publication on the reduction of contrails by SAF wins the ACP Paul Crutzen Award 2024

The study presents innovative airborne measurements of the effect of SAF on particle emissions and the number of ice crystals in contrails and simulates the resulting mitigation of the climate impact of contrails.

Solutions for climate protection in aviation

Probabilities of success for contrail avoidance analysed

Like road and sea transport, air traffic also produces carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. In addition, air traffic also contributes to warming through more short-lived effects, mainly through the formation of contrails and the emission of nitrogen oxide compounds (NOx). A statistical analysis has analysed the effects of optimising flight routes to avoid contrails.

New Study on the Predictability of the Middle Atmosphere

While weather near the Earth’s surface can in principle be predicted up to about two weeks in advance, the predictability window is only about half as long in higher layers of the atmosphere. The reason lies in small-scale waves that rapidly transport disturbances upward. Still, there is hope: large-scale circulation patterns remain predictable in higher layers for up to three weeks – offering the potential benefit of predicting atmospheric disturbances that can lead to disruptions in signals of satellite-based navigation and communication systems.

Methane emissions from mud volcanoes: DLR conducts drone measurements after volcanic eruption in Azerbaijan

As part of the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a team from the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics (DLR-IPA), together with local and international partners, has carried out drone-based measurements of methane emissions from mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan. The aim of the project is to better quantify these still poorly understood geological methane sources and to compare their emissions with those from other, mainly anthropogenic, sources.