ACINN Graduate Seminar - WS 2024/25

2025-01-22 at 12:00 (on-line & on-site)

Investigating Low-Level Clouds and Fog with the Karlsruhe Low Cloud Exploratory Platform (KLOCX)

Jutta Vüllers

IMK-ASF, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Germany

 

Low-level clouds and fog impact our climate system but also human life. They reflect solar radiation, but also trap the Earth's thermal radiation. Up until now, one of the big questions in climate research is how strong these effects actually are. For humans, low-level clouds pose a severe threat for aviation, sea and road traffic due to reduced visibility, they can prolong weather conditions favorable for reduced air quality and they impact energy production from photovoltaics. Despite their importance, the precise processes leading to the development and dissipation of low-level clouds and fog remain uncertain.

As part of the Aerosol, Clouds, and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS), a new fully mobile, ground-based observation system is set up. It employs a suite of in-situ and remote sensing instruments to study the life cycle of low-level clouds and fog. By delivering comprehensive, high-resolution data, KLOCX supports process studies essential for enhancing our understanding of these atmospheric conditions. Moreover, this data serves as ground truth for refining satellite-based detection and monitoring techniques. This presentation will introduce KLOCX and show the potential of the instrumentation for fog studies.

 

 

 

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