News

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)

New department head and professor

Claudia Stephan was appointed as professor for Theoretical Atmospheric Physics at the University of Rostock and takes over the lead of the IAP department „Modelling of Atmospheric Processes“ from January 2024. She got her physics diploma at the University Bonn, earned her PhD at the University of Colorado in Boulder and, after a postdoc stay at the University of Reading, moved to the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, where she led a Minerva Fast Track Research Group. Her working area is mesoscale dynamic meteorology. We are looking forward to working with her!

Thirty years Institute of Atmospheric Physics

A jubilee was celebrated on the 25th of September 2023. The event was moderated by Holger Wandsleb, chair of the board of trustees, greeting were given from the Ministry for Education, Science and Culture, the University of Rostock, the Leibniz Association as well as the former and current acting institute directors. The guest lecture was given by Prof. John Plane (University of Leeds) and was devoted to current scientific questions in atmospheric physics which initialized numerous discussions in the following reception.

URSI Awards for IAP contributions

Two prizes were awarded to IAP early career scientists for their contributions to the XXXVth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (URSI GASS 2023) in Sapporo. The Young Scientist Award was received by Dr. Priyanka Ghosh. She is PostDoc at the radar department of IAP on the topic Momentum flux and intermittency of gravity waves in MAARSY, our radar system on North Norway. URSI (International Union of Radio Science) selects the candidates following a competitive procedure. URSI invites the awardees to attend the General Assembly and Scientific Symposium on-site with full support. The other prize went to Jennifer Hartisch – she took third place in the Student Paper Competition (SPC). Her topic deals with anomalies in radar observations of polar mesospheric summer echoes. Out of 61 submissions, 10 had been selected to present their papers to a panel of judges in a special session at the venue. Of the 10 finalists, 4 were from Commission G (Ionospheric Radio and Propagation), in which Jenni also competed. Congratulations to both awardees!  

Visit of Minister Bettina Martin

Minister Bettina Martin from the Ministry of Science, Culture, Federal and European Affairs visited IAP on 18th July 2023. It was an insightful visit and IAP received good feedback on our ongoing research and excellent evaluation. The scientific and administrative team of IAP had a fruitful discussion with the visitors from the ministry about our new strategic orientation, our above-average success in acquiring new projects and the excellent cooperation with colleagues all over the world. The Minister and her team concluded their visit with a scientific tour of IAP's research facilities.