JOYCE

Jülich Observatory for Cloud Evolution

The mission of JOYCE is to improve our understanding of the emergence, development and decay of clouds in an environment with multiple, complex influences. For this, we operate an array of remote sensing and in-situ instruments to probe clouds within their environment with a high spatial-temporal resolution. The scientists at JOYCE develop and apply new measurement approaches and methodologies for quantifying the cloud environment, clouds and precipitation. Also, we perform model and satellite evaluation to assess weather and climate models, respectively to improve climate monitoring. 

Within the European Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) ACTRIS, JOYCE is a National Facility for cloud remote sensing. The continuous observations are provided in near-real-time to the ACTRIS Cloudnet data portal, which provides a data processing and curation service for ground-based cloud remote sensing measurements. This includes centralized processing, quality control, provenance, data harmonization and archiving. The University of Cologne has committed to providing these data to ACTRIS for at least 10 years after the finalization of the ACTRIS implementation phase in 2026. Within ACTRIS-D ("Deutschland"), a BMBF-funded collaborative research initiative, a JOYCE upgrade was funded, e.g. with a Raman lidar and a dual-frequency cloud radar.