Research disciplines

The atmosphere is in constant motion over a large range of spatial and temporal scales. The atmospheric conditions, especially the extreme ones, have a large impact on our society and therefore a good understanding is crucial. Physics plays a central role in unraveling the mechanisms behind atmospheric processes. The research group Atmospheric Physics is investigating atmospheric processes both by modeling and observational studies.

Our research team undertakes research in close collaboration with the ALADIN team of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI).

Atmospheric Modeling

Our modeling activities involve applying, evaluating and improving models which simulate evolution in our atmosphere both for the short term (weather) and long term (climate). Some of examples of recent research undertaken by our group:




  • investigating parameterization schemes for convection
  • inverse atmospheric transport modeling to trace nuclear explosions
  • carrying out CORDEX regional climate modeling over Europe and Central Asia in close collaboration with RMI and XIEG
  • investigating algorithms that permit an efficient use of the future supercomputer architectures.

These modeling studies are based on the ALADIN model which is a highly successful high resolution limited area model developed and maintained by a large consortium of countries including Belgium.

Urban Observations

MOCCA Our research activities are not limited to modeling, since July 2016 ourteam initiated the MOCCA network, a network of highly accurate weather stations to monitor the local microclimate of the city of Ghent. The MOCCA project will provide a unique urban dataset that will improve our understanding of the specific microclimate of cities and can be used for very high resolution weather modeling validation.