News

Larisa Goncharenko successfully defends her doctoral thesis!

Congratulations to our doctoral candidate Larisa Goncharenko on successfully defending her PhD thesis! Her dissertation explores the topic of how the ionosphere/thermosphere system is influenced by internal waves originating from the lower atmosphere. Her research focuses on sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) events, which alter the state of the middle atmosphere and affect the propagation of atmospheric waves. She investigates the long-distance influence of these events from the polar stratosphere to the low-latitude ionosphere, as well as interhemispheric influences. Through case studies of strong Antarctic and Arctic SSWs, she demonstrates significant and persistent ionospheric anomalies and discusses the underlying physical mechanisms.  

Juliana Jaen has successfully finished her doctoral studies!

We are pleased to congratulate our PhD student Juliana Jaen on the successful defence of her dissertation! Her research was dedicated to the study of dynamical processes in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The focus was on long-term wind dynamics during the summer season, analysing time series of 17-33 years from specular meteor and partial reflection radars at mid and high latitudes. Her results show an earlier onset of mesospheric summer and increasing wind maxima, accompanied by a weakening of mesopause winds at mid-latitudes. Congratulations Dr Jaen!  

Extension of SIMONe Germany meteor radar network

From April 22nd to 24th, a receiver was set up on the Danish island of Bornholm to complement the SIMONe Germany meteor radar network. The receiver structure consists of a software defined radio (USRP N200), signal amplifiers and filters, as well as GPS synchronization and a crossed 2-element Yagi antenna. Since then, the receiver has detected over 30 000 meteors per day and has enriched the northeastern area over the Baltic Sea, which could previously only be observed to a very limited extent. The SIMONe Germany network consists of the two SIMONe transmitters in Juliusruh and Kühlungsborn, the pulse radar at Collm (University of Liepzig), as well as seven receivers in Germany and now two in Denmark. Only the high number of meteor detections allows the calculation of wind fields for a height of 90 km with good temporal resolution.

Final status seminar concludes ROMIC project

The final ROMIC (Role Of the MIddle atmosphere in Climate) status seminar was held in Kühlungsborn last week. For one last time, researchers of the project gathered at the IAP to discuss the results. The project that produced numerous collaborative efforts and scientific findings in its ten-year runtime thus came to a worthy conclusion. ROMIC was a large-scale national research project led by the IAP under supervision of Prof. Lübken. It was funded by the BMBF within the research framework program “Research for Sustainable Development” (FONA). In terms of content, the scientists dealt with the importance of the middle atmosphere for the climate and the interactions of this region with the troposphere. Central questions included, for example, the influence of the variability of the sun as well as the human influence on the middle atmosphere and the climate.

Kesava Ramachandran has successfully defended his Ph.D. Thesis

On Wednesday this week, our Ph.D. student Kesava Ramachandran has successfully defended his thesis at the University of Rostock. In his work he investigated mesospheric instabilities, which play an important role in understanding the energy budget of the atmosphere, using both, observations and direct numerical simulations. His thesis focused on the study of kilometer-scale instabilities with horizontal scales of less than 100 km in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region. By means of airglow imagers, on a particular type of gravity wave event called a mesospheric bore was observed over Germany. The observation was complemented by two-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of the Navier-Stokes equations under the Boussinesq approximation. In addition, the inclusion of the wind gradient alongside the thermal channel led to the generation of secondary instabilities previously reported in observations of both bores and solitary waves. The exisiting simulation could be extended to three dimensions, resulting in the conclusion that kilometer-scale dynamics are also affected by the generation of secondary instabilities in the direction transverse to the propagation direction. In the picture: Prof. Dr. Jorge L. Chau, Prof. Dr. Claudia Stolle, Kesava Ramachandran, Prof. Dr. Sascha Kosleck, Prof. Dr. Sven Grundmann and Prof. Dr. Uwe Ritschel

IAP again receives certificate for "audit workandfamily"

The IAP has again received the certificate of the berufundfamilie Service GmbH in recognition of longstanding and sustainable family- and life-phase-conscious personnel policy. It is a seal of quality for a strategically designed policy regarding the compatibiltiy of work and family life. The dialogue process ensured that the high standard was maintained and further developed as needed. The certificates is valid for three yeas. The short portrait of the IAP contains both already established as well as a collection of future measures. The dialogue process has shown that development thrives on discourse. Thus, all employees are always welcome to offer suggestions how the compatibility of work, family and care can be sustained.

Dr. Baumgarten accepts appointment offer of the University of Rostock

We are pleased that Dr. Gerd Baumgarten, commissionery leader of the department Optical Soundings and Sounding Rockets, has accepted the appointment offer of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MNF) at the University of Rostock for the professorship of Optical Sounding of the Atmosphere and will permanently take over the leadership of the department. In the picture: Chancellor Dr. Jan Tamm, Prof. Dr. Claudia Stolle, Dr. Gerd Baumgarten, Rector Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Prommer, MNF-Dean Prof. Dr. Oliver Kühn

IAP participates in new Leibniz-Lab "Systemic Sustainability"

With its expertise in the field of atmospheric physics, IAP participates in the new format "Leibniz-Lab" with which the Leibniz Association promotes its inter- and transdisciplinary excellence. A total of 41 research institutions and 11 research clusters from the association form a central knowledge and advisory hub on issues regarding biodiversity, climate, agriculture and nutrition within the Leibniz-Lab "Systemic Sustainability". The focus is on the multifaceted question, how we can preserve biodiversity and climate and achieve a robust agriculture to ensure food supply at the same time.

Humboldt-Fellow at IAP

Congratulations to Dr. Suman Das for being awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Post-Docs. The fellowship will enable Dr. Das to conduct his research at IAP for two more years. In his work Dr. Das engages in the understanding of the origin of daily variations in the occurrence of equatorial plasma bubbles. Observations and modelling shall lead to a suitable prediction of EPBs within a certain longitudinal sector.

16th International Workshop on Technical and Scientific Aspects of iMST Radar and Lidar (MST16/iMST3)