2015

Planned satellite mission Merlin at “COP 21”

The Lidar department of the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics contributes substantially to the German-French satellite mission Merlin (‚Methane Remote Sensing LIDAR Mission‘). At the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference “COP 21” in Paris, Brigitte Zypries, German Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy, and Thierry Mandon, French Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research, underlined the role of spaceborne earth observation to document and investigate the climate change.

Flight tests for alternative fuels

Alternative fuels have the potential to support the environment and climate-friendly developments in air transport. At present, global air traffic contributes towards almost five percent of global warming. In addition to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, condensation trails and the resulting cirrus clouds lead to a significant climate impact. In a three-week series of flight tests lasting until 9 October 2015 within the ECLIF project (‘Emission and Climate Impact of Alternative Fuels‘), the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics in cooperation with the DLR Institute of Combustion Technology is investigating how to reduce the impact of air transport on the climate by using alternative fuels.

Wind-Lidar-Campaign in preparation of the ADM-Aeolus Mission

For accurate weather forecasts for Europe it is crucial to capture the winds over the North Atlantic as precisely as possible. Scientists at the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics have developed an airborne prototype of a wind lidar (light detection and ranging) that is scheduled for deployment on a new European Space Agency (ESA) satellite for launch by end 2016.

Contributions of IPA to the DKK position paper

The Deutsche Klimakonsortium (German Climate Consortium, DKK), the umbrella organisation of German climate researchers, has issued a position paper on the perspectives for climate research from 2015 to 2025. The paper was formulated by 80 invited scientists and experts, among them also scientists from the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics. It represents a consensus of the leading climate and climate impact researchers.

First successful tests of new LIDAR system measuring the climate gases CO2 and CH4 onboard HALO

After a development phase of more than four years, a new multi-wavelength LIDAR system for climate research has successfully been tested onboard the HALO research aircraft for the first time. Its aim is the simultaneous remote sensing of the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere, responsible for a large part of anthropogenic global warming and playing a key role in climate projections.

WakeNet-Europe Workshop 2015 - international wake turbulence networking

The DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IPA) co-chaired this year's WakeNet-Europe Workshop jointly with the DLR Institute of Flight Systems and TU Braunschweig (in cooperation with the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands (NLR), Eurocontrol, and Thales). Strong participation from numerous European and global aviation stakeholders and presenters sparked a successful workshop, highly appreciated by representatives from the European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Study on the inclusion of aviation in international climate protection protocols

The air traffic with its various climate effects can be integrated in the international climate protection protocols. Significant reductions of climate relevant emissions are possible without larger influences on the air traffic demand. This results from a recent study of DLR with contributions by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics. For the first time, the total climate effect of air traffic was considered in such a study. The total effect is about twice as high as the effect of CO2 alone.

Evaluating the EMAC global climate model using the newly-developed ESMValTool

A detailed evaluation of the global climate-chemistry model EMAC was carried out using the Earth System Model Validation Tool. Four EMAC simulations have been evaluated in order to identify differences in simulated ozone and selected climate parameters that resulted from (i) different setups of the EMAC model (nudged versus free-running) and (ii) different boundary conditions (emissions, sea surface temperatures and sea-ice concentrations)

Aerosol research group Weinzierl awarded with ERC Starting grant

Physicist Professor Bernadett Weinzierl is at DLR-Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Oberpfaffenhofen and at LMU’s Institute for Meteorology, and her research focuses on the physics of aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere. Aerosols are tiny particles such as mineral dust or black carbon suspended in the air. These particles can be transported over distances of thousands of kilometers and, because they can absorb and scatter solar radiation and affect cloud formation, they have a significant impact on atmospheric chemistry, air quality, climate and local weather.

The effects of the transport sectors emissions on global atmospheric aerosols and climate

Numerical simulations with a global chemistry-climate model show that the emissions from the transport sectors (land-based transport, shipping and aviation) have important impacts on atmospheric aerosol and climate. Several numerical simulations were performed with the global chemistry-climate model EMAC, coupled to the aerosol model MADE, to quantify the effect of transport emissions on atmospheric aerosol and climate.