Land-Atmosphere Feedback Observatory (LAFO)

The temporal and spatial distributions of clouds and precipitation are very important parameters for the characterization of weather and climate. These parameters are still difficult to forecast, however. More precise weather forecasting and climate models are of great social and economic relevance, e.g. for the simulation of extreme events (droughts, extreme precipitation) and more precise advanced warning.

The Land-Atmosphere Feedback Observatory (LAFO) at the University of Hohenheim employs a combination of novel types of sensors to enable researchers to produce representations of plant transpiration and the turbulence in the lower atmosphere, among other things, with hitherto unprecedented accuracy and thus significantly improve simulations of clouds and precipitation in weather and climate models.

The Carl Zeiss Foundation supported the setup of LAFO as part of its program to strengthen research infrastructures at universities.

About the Carl Zeiss Foundation 
The Carl Zeiss Foundation’s mission is to create an open environment for scientific breakthroughs. As a partner of excellence in science, it supports basic research as well as applied sciences in the STEAM subject areas (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Founded in 1889 by the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe, the Carl Zeiss Foundation is one of the oldest and biggest private science funding institutions in Germany. It is the sole owner of Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG. Its projects are financed from the dividend distributions of the two foundation companies.