by In July, ITaRS fellows had the great opportunity to participate in the Summer School on Remote Sensing of Clouds and Precipitation in Bonn, Germany. From the ITaRS network, Prof. Susanne Crewell, Dr. Christine Chiu, Claudia Acquistapace, Maria Barrera, Gabriele Corbetta, and Alexander Myagkov participated in the summer school.
Well-known experts from Germany, USA, and Canada were invited to give lectures about the application of radar in remote sensing of clouds and precipitation and its synergy with other instruments. The different lectures addressed topics such as radar history, spectral analysis, and polarimetry. The obtained knowledge was used within practical lessons during which the students were introduced to the applicability of different methods to real data. After the lectures, students presented posters. There was enough time to discuss own results and further scientific activity with the remote sensing experts.
One day of the summer school was spent at the Jülich ObservatorY for Cloud Evolution (JOYCE). There, the remote-sensing instruments like a 35-GHz scanning cloud radar, lidars, microwave radiometers, and a micro rain radar were introduced to the group. The excursion was concluded with a tour to the operating X-band weather radar at top of the Sophienhöhe mountain.