Payerne National Facility receives a major new upgrade in cloud remote sensing

Last week saw a major step forward in observation by ACTRIS-Switzerland: a radar dedicated to the remote sensing of clouds in the atmosphere was installed by the University of Bern at the National Facility in Payerne, hosted by MeteoSwiss. This instrument of utmost importance will profile cloud structure with high…

WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo visits the Jungfraujoch research station

WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo together with the MeteoSwiss directorate visited the Jungfraujoch research station station. The research station hosts a range of atmospheric observations that are integrated in national networks (Swiss Alpine Climate Radiation Monitoring, SACRaM), international programs (Global Atmosphere Watch, GAW), and European research infrastructures (ICOS and ACTRIS).…

EarthCARE has been launched

The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Exporer) satellite was launched last night from California (USA). With four remote sensing instruments on board (an atmospheric LIDAR, a Doppler Cloud radar, a multi-spectral imager, and a broad-band radiometer), it has been designed to study the role of…

PMOD-WRC is officially approved as a new unit of the ACTRIS Center of Aerosol Remote Sensing

It’s official. After receiving the approval of the ACTRIS General Assembly in November 2023, the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center, Switzerland (PMOD-WRC) is now officially a new unit of the ACTRIS Center of Aerosol Remote Sensing (CARS). The main task of the CARS-PMOD-WRC unit is to link the ACTRIS/CARS…

Payerne observations help to unravel the complicated climate impacts of agriculture

The climate and environmental impacts of agriculture are complicated. A new study performed in Finland and led by Dr. Lubna Dada from the Paul Scherrer Institute has shown that vapours such as ammonia and amines emitted from farmland can go on to form new particles in the atmosphere much more…

Photo: Lubna Dada

CzechGlobe visits ACTRIS Switzerland for an ATMO-ACCESS Trans-National Access (TNA) training workshop

A delegation of four scientists from CzechGlobe visited ACTRIS Switzerland for a training and exchange workshop this week. Empa and PSI provided the delegation insights into their various activities ranging from the long term observations of trace gases and aerosols to current developments in laser based measurements of trace gases…