Section Meteorology

Meteorology is devoted to the study of atmospheric processes that influence the Earth's weather and climate and has applications in weather and climate prediction, aerospace, agriculture, energy production, environmental research, and disaster management. The focus of the IfG Meteorology Section in Bonn is on climate dynamics and monitoring and statistical methods, radar remote sensing, boundary layer dynamics and observation, theoretical synoptic, and general meteorology and atmospheric dynamics. The meteorology section of the IfG is involved, among others, in the Collaborative Research Center 1502 DETECT, leads the BMBF joint project ClimXtreme and the Priority Program 2115 PROM as well as the Forschergruppe FOR 2589 RealPEP.

Education includes the B.Sc. Meteorology and Geophysics and the M.Sc. Physics of Earth and Atmosphere.


News
KinderUni at University Bonn

On May 27th, Junior Professor Leonie Esters spoke at the KinderUni at University Bonn about the difference between weather and climate. The children were enthusiastic and actively participated. More information about the KinderUni can be found at: https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/studium/studienorientierung-und-uni-bonn-entdecken/junge-uni/veranstaltungen-und-wettbewerbe/kinderuni

PrePEP conference 2025

The international conference on ‘Precipitation Processes - Estimation and Prediction (PrePEP)’ to be held 16-21 March 2025 in Bonn, Germany, will bring together scientists contributing with new approaches to improve the monitoring, understanding, nowcasting and prediction of precipitation processes. This includes advancements in integrated multi-sensor observations, their exploitation for parameterization developments, classical or AI-based Nowcasting techniques, microphysical retrieval development, data assimilation, the blending with numerical weather prediction, hydrological flood forecasts and warning strategies. Please visit the conference website https://indico.scc.kit.edu/e/prepep for more information. Looking forward to seeing you in Bonn!

Science rally around Poppelsdorf

On January 27th, we participated with two stations in the science rally around Poppelsdorf. Under bright sunshine, over 300 students visited various scientific stations. At our stations, the  students had the opportunity to learn the differences between weather and climate. In addition to explanations about the topics and measurement methods, they could illustrate their learning  through experiments.

Wintry weather in Bonn

A wavy air mass boundary caused significant snowfall in Bonn and its surroundings this Wednesday. The air mass boundary moved very slowly, allowing precipitation to fall in the same location over an extended period. At the same time, there was a risk of freezing rain due to the weather conditions in southern Germany. The wintry weather will persist in our region until the weekend. The last time we experienced such large amounts of snow in our region was in December 2010.

Our working groups

Photo: Clouds in front of a blue sky. Photographed from the air.
© Prof. Dr. Helmut Kraus

WG Theoretical Meteorology

Photo: Broken, dried up brown soil.
© pexels CCO

WG Climate Dynamics and Statistics

Photo: A radar unit with a large dish. The sign in front of it is labelled ‘Danger’.
© Prof. Dr. Helmut Kraus

WG Remote Sensing

Photo: View of the sea at sunset. In the foreground is the railing of a ship.
© Leonie Esters

WG Climate Monitoring

A satellite image of Europe with schematically marked high and low pressure areas, temperatures and pressure lines.
© NASA Worldview/Christoph Gatzen

WG General Meteorology

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