No Agriculture Without Rain

Agriculture cannot thrive without rain. For a long time, this has sounded like a truism, but it is gaining new meaning with the increasing threat of global warming. The study of water in the atmosphere is becoming more and more important. Scientists are not limiting themselves to the obvious accumulation of water in the clouds. The water vapor in the upper layers of the atmosphere has also become the subject of research. It is a major cause of the so-called “greenhouse effect,” which, on the one hand, ensures that our planet remains habitable. On the other hand, there is the danger that the atmosphere can heat up so much due to a “feedback effect” that the Earth will be transformed into an uninhabitable wasteland. With powerful LiDAR methods, researchers aim to unlock the secrets of water vapor.