Methods and Data

In this section we present methodical pillars of IEK-7 research as well as data sets.

Remote Sensing of Climate Processes in the Atmosphere with High Spatial Resolution

IEK-7, KIT and GFZ-Potsdam take the initiative for a new satellite mission to explore the middle atmosphere at high spatial resolution. The mission AtmoSat proposed to realize this concept was evaluated by the German Science Concile with an outstanding result.

More

Field observations on board HALO

The research aircraft HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) provides an excellent combination of high flight altitude and long range for investigations of climate processes in the UTLS. IEK-7 substantially contributed to HALO missions such as TACTS (Transport and Composition in the UT/LMS), ACRIDICON-CHUVA (Tropical Deep Convective Clouds and Precipitation over Amazonia), ML-Cirrus (Formation, Lifetime, Properties and Radiative Impact of Mid–Latitude Cirrus Clouds), POLSTRACC (Polar Stratosphere in a Changing Climate), GW-LCYCLE (Gravity Wave Life-Cycle), ESA´s GWEX (gravity wave experiment, coordinated by IEK-7), and SALSA (Seasonality of Air mass transport and origin in the Lowermost Stratosphere using the HALO Aircraft).

More

Process-oriented simulations

CLaMS (Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere), developed by IEK-7, utilises a unique transport and mixing scheme, which was optimized based on observations. The model is a world leader in simulating exchange processes in the atmosphere across transport barriers such as stratosphere-troposphere exchange. A detailed cirrus model is included in CLaMS-Ice based on MAID. In addition to event-based simulation, the model is now increasingly used to study interannual and decadal variability of the atmosphere.

More

JURASSIC (Inverse radiance modeling)

JURASSIC2 (Jülich rapid spectral simulation code version 2) is a software package developed by IEK-7 for simulating spectra in the infrared. Such spectra are typically measured by limb and nadir sounders carried by satellites in Earth orbit, and by stratospheric aircraft or balloons. Using the JURASSIC2 forward model in combination with an inversion algorithm implemented in JUTIL (Jülich tomographic inversion library) allows to deduce atmospheric temperatures and trace gas compositions from the measured spectra.

More

Data Repositories

Data repositories provide access to a climatology of polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) and general cloud information obtained from the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument onboard the Envisat satellite (ESA). Further, we provide access to climatologies of gravity waves derived from satellite observations of HIRDLS, SABER, and AIRS (NASA). The JÜLich In-situ Airborne Data Base (JULIA), which contains long-term data sets of water vapor, cirrus, and ozone, is in preparation.

More