Unusually cold stratospheric temperatures lead to record large Arctic ozone loss during Winter 2010/2011. The detailed mechanisms leading to the formation of this first Arctic ozone hole have now been published in Geophysical Research Letters by a team of scientists from the KIT Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK).

To the KIT Press Release

The atmospheric observation system "KITcube" was passed to its purpose on 15th November 2011 by the Vice President of KIT, Dr. Peter Fritz.
In Hatzenbühl/Pfalz measurements in the atmosphere began that contribute to a better understanding of the weather.

The Helmholtz Research School MICMoR on “Mechanisms and Interactions of Climate Change in Mountain Regions” is a newly established Graduate Programme funded by the Helmholtz Association and about to start January 1, 2012. It will be hosted at IMK’s Institute of Atmospheric Environmental Research at Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Campus Alpine) and will run for the next 6 years, training up to 25 PhD students.

► Flyer about MICMoR

Thomson Reuters - Science Watch® has selected a "New Hot Paper" in the field of Geosciences:
"The Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS): the scientific strategy, the field phase, and research highlights".
(Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 137: 3-30, SI, 1 January 2011; Authors: Wulfmeyer, Behrendt, Kottmeier, Corsmeier, et al.)
This is one of the most-cited papers in this discipline published during the past two years.

A team of authors at the KIT (IMK-TRO and IFG) with Franz König, Gerhard Schmitt, Rainer Schuhmann, and Christoph Kottmeier received the "Mintrop Award 2011" of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) for the development and publication of the new measuring method "Free Line Sensing, a new method for soil moisture measurements using high-voltage power lines" (Near Surface Geophysics 8, 151-161, 2010).