The Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) is a part of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS CR), which joins research institutions, covering the whole field of science and humanities.
The Institute of Atmospheric Physics was established in 1964 as a continuation of the former Laboratory for Meteorology of the Geophysical Institute. The main research focus was on the processes taking place in the troposphere. In 1994, the former Ionospheric Dept. of the Geophysical Institute joined the IAP, thereby expanding the research domain, which now covers the whole atmosphere from the boundary layer up to interplanetary space.
The IAP deals with scientific investigations of the atmosphere in its whole vertical extent, thus studying the boundary layer, troposphere, middle atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth by applying experimental and theoretical methods and numerical simulations. The activities include also monitoring and special measurements, data evaluation and their transfer into worldwide data networks, and expertises.
The research is now conducted in the following streams:
atmospheric boundary layer processes
mesoscale, dynamical, and applied meteorology
climate variability and climate change
ozone research
ionosphere and magnetosphere, including our own satellite experiments
The staff of the Institute amounts to 111 persons (or 80.9 if recalculated to the number of full-time jobs; state at the end of 2008), 40% of which hold the PhD degree or its equivalent.
Favourable features of the age structure are rather even distribution of the staff among all age categories, and in particular, a relatively high share of the young (both postgraduates and undergraduates).
The age structure of the staff is shown in the diagrams below: left for all staff and right for scientists only.
The total budget of the IAP amounted to 68.8 millions Czech crowns (CZK; exchange rate is approx. 27 CZK = 1 EUR) in 2007 and 71.1 millions CZK in 2008. Several sources contribute to the budget. The largest one, the institutional contribution, comes directly from the budget of the Academy of Sciences and is directed at basic salaries and overhead costs. The Academy of Sciences covers also the oriented research, intended to support specific projects with expected application outcomes. The international funding includes among others ESA, NASA, and the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes of EU; it is the second largest contribution to the budget of the IAP. Other sources of funding include national grant agencies, the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences (GA AS) and the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR); and ministries of the Czech government, most importantly the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, which provides contributions to the participation in international programmes (e.g. COST, KONTAKT). Around 2 million CZK come annually from contracts with industrial and other companies. The composition of the budget (in thousands of CZK) is displayed in the diagrams below.
Several international workshops and meetings were organized and/or hosted by the IAP in 2007–2008:
A joint IRI/COST296 workshop 'Ionosphere – Modelling, Forcing and Telecommunications' was organized by the IAP (chairman of LOC J. Laštovička) in Prague on July 10-14, 2007, with participation of 103 scientists and doctoral students from five continents. Altogether 66 oral and 53 poster papers were presented. Selected papers from the workshop are in press in two special issues of Advances in Space Research (J. Laštovička was one of guest editors).
IAP was co-organizer of the General Assembly of the ENSEMBLES ('ENSEMBLE-based predictions of climate change and its impacts') project, November 2007 (150 participants, 135 from abroad); the main organizer was the Charles University, Prague.
INTAS ELF/VLF workshop on wave phenomena in the plasmasphere of the Earth took place at the IAP in January 2007 (18 participants, of which 11 from abroad).
COST 727 Core Group Meeting was hosted by the IAP in May 2007 (10 participants, of which 9 from abroad), and COST 727 Management Committee and Working Groups Meeting was hosted in May 2008 (25 participants, of which 23 from abroad).
The staff of the IAP participated also in programme and scientific committees of international conferences, e.g. the 5th IAGA/ICMA/CAWSES Workshop 'Long Term Changes and Trends in the Atmosphere', St. Petersburg, Russia (2008; J. Laštovička chaired the Program Committee), the COST 733 mid-term conference 'Advances in Circulation and Weather Type Classifications and Applications', Kraków, Poland (2008; R. Huth chaired the scientific committee), Cluster – THEMIS science workshop, New Hampshire, Durham, US (2008; O. Santolík), and the 3rd VERSIM Workshop, Tihany, Hungary (2008, O. Santolík); and organized and convened/co-convened symposia at the Scientific Assembly of IUGG, Perugia, Italy (2007), the EGU General Assemblies, Vienna, Austria (2007, 2008), STAMMS – Cluster input to critical issues in magnetospheric physics, Orléans, France (2007), the 7th European Conference on Applied Climatology / 8th Annual Meeting of European Meteorological Society, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2008), and the 29th General Assembly of URSI, Chicago, Illinois, US (2008).
CAWSES (Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System)
IRI (International Reference Ionosphere)
Participation in international research projects
6th Framework Programme of the European Union:
ENSEMBLE-based predictions of climate change and its impacts (ENSEMBLES)
Central and eastern Europe Climate change Impact and vulnerabiLIty Assessment (CECILIA)
GEO-6 (Galileo for Scientific User Community)
ALOMAR-eARI (ALOMAR – enhanced Approach to Research Infrastructure)
7th Framework Programme of the European Union:
Lapland Atmosphere-Biosphere Facility (LAPBIAT-2)
ESA / Prodex and Pecs contracts:
Dual segmented Langmuir Probe
Data processing and simulation facility, numerical modelling, and interpretation of wave observations
Investigation of waves and turbulence in space plasma
Thermal Plasma Measurement Unit (TPMU)
NASA awards:
Understanding Mercury's Magnetosphere using MESSENGER Data and Global Kinetic Simulations
A Study of the Moon's Plasma Environment and Mini-Magnetospheres
Interactions of the Icy Satellites of Saturn with Its Magnetosphere
Studies of the Interaction between Jovian Plasma and Io Using Hybrid Simulations
Lunar-Based Soft X-ray Science
CNRS-PICS:
The solar wind and its interaction with the Earth's magnetosphere: Data analysis
Statistical study of the Demeter spacecraft data
KONTAKT/Barrande:
Propagation of electromagnetic waves observed on the DEMETER spacecraft
Formation of nonlinear coherent structures in space plasmas
INTAS:
Discrete and noise-like ELF/VLF emissions in the Earth's magnetosphere
COST projects – the participation of Czech institutions is funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and partly EU:
COST 296 (Mitigation of ionospheric effects on radio systems)
COST 724 (Developing the scientific basis for monitoring, modelling and predicting space weather)
COST 727 (Measuring and forecasting atmospheric icing on structures)
COST 731 (Propagation of uncertainty in advanced meteo-hydrological forecast systems)
COST 733 (Harmonization and applications of weather types classifications for European regions)
COST ES 0803 (Developing space weather products and services in Europe)
Bilateral collaboration in research and development:
Development of short-range precipitation prediction systems for hydrologic and flood prediction (with NOAA National Weather Service, US)
Meteorological causes and human mortality impacts of extreme hot weather in summer: a comparative study (with Korea Meteorological Administration, Korea)
Changes of long-term trends in the dynamics of the upper atmosphere (with Institute for Meteorology, University of Leipzig, Germany)
Ionospheric modelling for the purpose of HF communication prediction (with Hermanus Observatory, South Africa)
Study and modelling of space weather impact on ionospheric variability (with Compleo Astronomico El Leoncito (CONICET)-CASLEO, Argentina)
Geomagnetic, meteorological and solar influences on the ionosphere (with Observatorio del Ebro, Spain)
Effects of solar activity in the upper atmosphere (with Solar-Terrestrial Influences Laboratory, BAS, Bulgaria)
P.Šauli teaches a recurrent course on Physics of the Ionosphere at Universite de Rennes, France.
The staff of the IAP have served as supervisors and consultants of PhD theses of students of Universite de Paris 6, France; University of Alberta, Canada; and Ebro Observatory, Roquetes/Tortosa, Spain.
The IAP collaborates with various institutions in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. The important collaboration proceeds especially with the following institutions (under joint projects and/or with joint publications; arranged alphabetically by country):
University of Tucuman, Argentina
Astronomical observatory of San Juan, CASLEO-CONICET, Argentina
Space Research Institute, Department of Extraterrestrial Physics, Graz, Austria
Institute of Meteorology and Physics, University of Agricultural Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
Terrestrial Influences Laboratory, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, Bulgaria
Institute of Physical Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, Bulgaria
Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Canada
Geophysical Observatory, Sodankylä, Finland
University of Rennes 1, France
Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, France
Centre d'Etudes des Environnements Terrestre et Planétaires (CETP), Vélizy, France
Laboratoire de Physique et de Chimie de l'Environnement, LPCE, CNRS, Orléans, France
Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique, LESIA, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France
Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, CNRS, Toulouse, France
Observatoire de Cote d'Azur, Nice, France
Department of Geography, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
Leibnitz Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Rostock, Kühlungsborn, Germany
Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University, Germany
Technical University of Freiberg, Germany
Department of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Florence, Italy
Institute of the Ionosphere, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Korea Meteorological Administration, Seoul, Korea
Space Science Department, European Space Agency, ESA, Noordwijk, the Netherlands
Center for Space Research, PAN, Warsaw, Poland
Centre of Geophysics, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia
Hermanus Magnetic Observatory, South Africa
Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Ebro Observatory, Roquetes, Spain
Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Dorking, United Kingdom
Department of Physics, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California at Los Angeles, US
Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, US
National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, US
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, US
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Cambridge, US
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, US
Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, US
University of Massachusetts, Center for Atmospheric Research, Lowell, US
Office of Hydrologic Development, NOAA National Weather Service, Silver Spring, MD, US
Co-editor of Advances in Space Research (J. Laštovička)
Memberships in editorial boards/advisory boards of International Journal of Climatology (R. Huth), Meteorologische Zeitschrift (R. Huth), Studia geophysica et geodaetica (J. Laštovička and R. Huth)
Guest-editors of special issues of Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Advances in Space Research (J. Laštovička) and Theoretical and Applied Climatology (R. Huth)
In 2007–2008, the IAP had 10 joint research projects with national universities. The subjects include plasma and space physics, climate variability and modelling, climate change impacts, extreme value analysis, theory of dynamical systems, and telecommunication systems. The cooperating departments are:
Dept. of Surface and Plasma Science (former Dept. of Electronics and Vacuum Physics), Charles University, Prague,
Dept. of Meteorology and Environment Protection, Charles University, Prague,
Institute of Agrosystems and Bioclimatology, Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Brno,
Dept. of Electromagnetic Field, Czech Technical University, Prague,
Dept. of Applied Mathematics, Technical University, Liberec,
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Technical University, Brno.
Ionospheric physics (P. Šauli; Universite de Rennes, France)
Physical climatology (J. Kyselý; Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague)
Mathematical modelling of cloud and precipitation processes (D. Řezáčová; Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague)
Weather chart analysis II (Z. Sokol; Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague)
Selected topics in hydrometeorology (M. Müller, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague)
Physical processes in the atmosphere (D. Řezáčová; Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague)
Geographical information systems in meteorology and climatology (J. Hošek; Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague)
Numerical modelling of plasmas (P. Trávníček; Faculty of Nuclear Science and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University, Prague)
Current topics in meteorology, climatology and air protection (R. Beranová, V. Bližňák, M. Cahynová, D. Hanslian, J. Hošek, P. Chaloupecký, Z. Chládová, J. Moliba, T. Šindelářová, P. Zacharov; Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague)
Electrical engineering and measurements (O. Fišer; Jan Perner Transport Faculty of the University of Pardubice)
Electromagnetic compatibility (O. Fišer; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of the University of Pardubice)
High frequency technology for communications (O. Fišer; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of the University of Pardubice)
Postgraduate courses (all courses are taught at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague):
Predictability of atmospheric processes (J. Horák)
Applications of multivariate statistical methods in meteorology and climatology (R. Huth)
Topical issues in synoptic climatology (R. Huth)
Stratosphere and mesosphere (J. Laštovička)
Applied cloud and precipitation physics (D. Řezáčová)
The staff of the IAP have served as supervisors and consultants of diploma and PhD theses of students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague; University of Pardubice; Czech Technical University; Universite de Paris 6, France; University of Alberta, Canada; and Ebro Observatory, Roquetes/Tortosa, Spain.
Diploma theses defended in 2007–2008 (in parantheses are given the names of the MSc student and his supervisor/consultant from the IAP):
Analysis of short term precipitation and its relationship to the orography of the Czech Republic (V. Bližňák, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, 2007; supervisor Z. Sokol)
Effects of sudden air temperature and pressure changes on mortality (E. Plavcová, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, 2008; supervisor J. Kyselý)
Verification of normality of statistical distributions for selected climate elements (P. Jelínek, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague; supervisor R. Huth)
Defended PhD theses both supervised and conducted by the staff of the IAP (in parantheses are given the names of the PhD student and his supervisor/consultant, the staff of the IAP is in bold):
Specifics of climate of Prague and its relation to the air pollution (J. Hošek, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague; supervisor I. Sládek, Charles University, Prague)
Hydrometeorological conditions of the origin of significant rain floods in the Czech territory (M. Müller, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague; consultants V. Kakos, D. Řezáčová, supervisor I. Sládek, Charles University, Prague)
Long-term variability of relationships between atmospheric circulation and surface climate elements (R. Beranová, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague; supervisor R. Huth)
Habilitation thesis (for title 'Associate Professor') defended in 2007–2008:
Very short-range precipitation forecast (Z. Sokol, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, 2007)
3. COOPERATION WITH UNIVERSITIES
The staff of the Institute amounts to 111 persons (or 80.9 if recalculated to the number of full-time jobs; state at the end of 2008), 40% of which hold the PhD degree or its equivalent.
Favourable features of the age structure are rather even distribution of the staff among all age categories, and in particular, a relatively high share of the young (both postgraduates and undergraduates).
The age structure of the staff is shown in the diagrams below: left for all staff and right for scientists only.
