The secondment to the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig was a like a trip “back to the roots” for me.
Since I left the city, after five years of studying there, this Secondment gave me the possibility to get back to Leipzig to study again. So I was quite happy about the given opportunity to learn about lidar data processing from the lidar experts of my former working group.
In my PhD work I want to look at ice particle growth processes within mixed phase clouds based on measurement data from the Transportable Atmospheric RAdar (TARA). This instrument has the advantage that it can characterize the ice particles with in mixed phase clouds, but misses the information about the super-cooled liquid cloud droplet layers within such clouds. To be able to detect such layers of super-cooled liquid droplets I want to use CESAR Water Vapour, Aerosol and Cloud Lidar (CAELI) from the Royal Dutch weather service (KNMI). To be able to handle process and interpret the data the lidar group from TROPOS help me a lot.
So in the end I am now able to process CAELI data myself. This helpe me a lot to understand the theoretical background behind lidar measurements and the data processing, too. So all the gained knowledge now will help in the further seps of my PhD work a lot.
So thanks again to all the lidar people from Leipzig, for the help and the support.