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Chair of Environmental Meteorology

Climate impacts of drought-damaged forests

Massive tree-dieback has occurred in the Upper Rhine valley as a consequence of the 2018 and 2020 droughts. We operate this mast at the Hartheim Forest Research Site as part of the Integrated Carbon Observation System to record impacts of droughts on energy, radiation, and greenhouse gas exchange between forests and the atmosphere.

How trees react to wind gusts

In the project STREEM we investigate the detailed reactions of trees to wind loads using sensors and cameras continuously measuring tree deformation and swaying and instruments on multiple masts to record wind and turbulence.

Students map urban heat island with Meteobikes

Our students in the minor "Meteorology and Climatology" map the urban heat island of Freiburg using mobile, self-assembled weather stations on bikes. Read press release...

Climate feedbacks of cities

In 2021 and 2022 we conducted a year-long measurement campaign in Berlin as part of our ERC Synergy Grant urbisphere to quantify feedbacks between cities and emissions and the regional atmosphere.

Pressure pumping and methane oxidation in forest soils

In a project funded by the DFG, the Chair of Environmental Meteorology is investigating the importance of wind-induced soil gas transport processes for methane oxidation in forest soils. It is assumed that turbulence-controlled pressure pumping significantly controls the exchange of the greenhouse gas methane between forest soils and the atmosphere.

How urban emissions affect the climate

We use instruments like this sunphotometer as part of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) to study how urban aerosol emissions change regional radiative transfer.

Artificial intelligence for urban climate adaptation

I4C - Intelligence for Cities is a research project where we develop new methods for rapid modelling and spatially explicit risk assessments of heat, water and wind extremes in cities using artificial intelligence.

Heat in the desert

NamTEX was a multi-national field campaign in the Namib Desert in March 2020. We operated a fiber-optic temperature sensing system and thermal cameras to collect fundamental data for the analysis of three-dimensional heat transfer between the soil, surface and atmosphere.

Mobile biometeorological network

As part of the INTERREG V project Clima'bility Design developed a network of 120 biometeorological sensors that records, assesses and communicates thermal comfort in real-time at different workplaces and uses machine learning for workplace-specific heat stress forecasts. Read more...

Urban heat and extreme precipitation

A new sensor network in Freiburg monitors the evolution of thermal comfort and extreme weather. The observations are crucial for the development of advanced simulation and analysis methods needed to support urban planning. 

Land-atmosphere interactions of disturbances

We measure how energy, water and carbon balances are affected by climate and human-induced disturbances.

Urban boundary layer dynamics

In our ERC Synergy Grant urbisphere we quantify how large urban areas modify the boundary layer using networks of doppler wind LIDARs and ceilometers upwind, over and downwind of cities.

Monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from cities

In collaboration with European Partners, we test and develop new techniques to directly monitor emission reduction efforts in cities using atmospheric measurements as part of ICOS Cities.

The Chair of Environmental Meteorology is part of the Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources and associated member in the Institute of Forest Sciences.

Our research activities focus on boundary-layer meteorology and land-atmosphere interactions. We study the dynamics of near-surface airflow and turbulence and measure and model the exchange of energy, water and trace gases between complex land surfaces (forests, cities) and the atmosphere.

In teaching, we offer a B.Sc. minor in Meteorology and Climatology (in German) and we are involved the M.Sc. degree program in Environmental Sciences (in English).