Atmospheric Sciences

CLOUDLAB: Cloud research in a natural laboratory

Anna Trosits and Sebastian Käser March 31, 2026

Landing of the tethered balloon system HoloBalloon by the CLOUDLAB team at the main field site in Switzerland. Image credits to CLOUDLAB team.

It’s murky grey, windy, and freezing when we head out into the countryside of the Swiss pre-Alps. We are looking for low hanging clouds to serve as our natural laboratory. Wintertime low stratus clouds can cover Switzerland for days. This type of cloud is stable with temperatures below 0 ºC and it contains plenty of liquid cloud droplets, but no ice crystals. These are the perfect background condi ...[Read More]

Using cloud microphysics to predict thunderstorms: How modelling of atmospheric electricity could save lives

Inna Gubenko February 14, 2021

A lightning strike: Will cloud microphysics help us predicting these? Image credit: Mike Lehmann, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The last three decades were the warmest in the history of meteorological observations in Europe. Temperature rise is accompanied by an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather and climatic events, which are the main risks for population and environment associated with modern climate change. An important class of such phenomena includes severe rainfall, tornadoes, squalls, and thu ...[Read More]

What? Ice lollies falling from the sky?

David Docquier June 2, 2017

Lolly in the sky. [Credit: Darwin Bell via flickr]

You have more than probably eaten many lollipops as a kid (and you might still enjoy them. The good thing is that you do not necessarily need to go to the candy shop to get them but you can simply wait for them to fall from the sky and eat them for free. Disclaimer: this kind of lollies might be slightly different from what you expect… Are lollies really falling from the sky? Eight years ago ...[Read More]