Aircraft Measurements of Trace Gases in the Upper Troposphere

Background

The atmosphere research group at IUP Heidelberg operates the mini-DOAS instrument onboard the DLR’s high-altitude long-range aircraft (HALO), a modified Gulfstream G550. Analysis of scattered skylight spectra reveals trace gas concentrations in the atmosphere from remote distances at altitudes up to 15 km.

Work Content

A master thesis within this project consists of the analysis of UV/visible/NIR spectra collected with an airborne optical spectrometer. Field experiments to collect spectra take place at remote locations (e.g., Kiruna, Sweden in March 2025). The collected spectra are analyzed using Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) to retrieve slant column densities (SCDs) of trace gases in the atmosphere. These SCDs are converted to concentrations / volume mixing ratios (VMRs) and contextualized within atmospheric chemistry.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of lectures in environmental physics, ideally atmospheric physics and radiative transfer is preferable. Interest in lab as well as field work is necessary, while coding experience (data analysis, plotting) with Python or Matlab would be helpful.

andre.butz@uni-heidelberg.de
bschrein@iup.uni-heidelberg.de
kvoss@iup.uni-heidelberg.de