Master theses topics

If you are interested in a Master Thesis at the Chair of Experimental Meteorology (Mayer) please contact the professors (Bernhard Mayer, Mark Wenig) or lecturers directly. We always have a number of timely and relevant topics.

Bernhard Mayer's group develops remote sensing techniques for clouds and aerosol from research aircraft and from the roof platform of the institute using lidar, radar, and imaging spectrometers. We also work on improved parameterizations of clouds in numerical weather forecast and climate models and on forward operators for data assimilation. For these applications we develop radiative transfer models.

The following list shows some examples of typical topics from recent years

Development of a surface wind retrieval by analysing sunglint geometry from specMACS radiance measurements, Anja Stallmach, 2026

Exploring the Potential of Ground-Based Cameras for Data Assimilation, Moritz Müller, 2025

Evaluation of Ensemble-based Numerical Weather Predictions of solar irradiance over Germany, Marie Mähnert, 2024

Validation of Cloud Top Height and Droplet Size Retrievals Using Simulated Observations of Polarized Radiance, Lea Volkmer, 2023

Remote sensing of arctic cirrus microphysics using hyperspectral reflectivity measurements and polarized imaging, Dennys Erdtmann, 2023

Remote Sensing of Ice Crystal Orientation from Polarized Imaging of the Cloudglint, Anna Weber, 2022

Optimization of the Wavelength Grid for Rapid Calculation of Solar and Thermal Irradiances and Heating Rates, Sophie Meier, 2022

Master Theses as pdf are available in the internal area under Abschlussarbeiten am MIM.

In this project image sequences have to be analyzed in order to derive visibility range information. Different landmarks at different distances from the camera, e.g. high-rise building or church spires, can be used to derive optical parameters that depend on the visibility. Those parameters could be the local variability or the difference of the intensity of the object compared to the view in the sky close to the object, and can be compared to aerosol optical depths that have been measured at the same time.

The project includes the following steps:

1. Automatic adjustment of the images from the sequence in case the camera shifted
2. Chose useful objects in the field of view
3. Determine intensity differences between objects and the sky
4. Derive local structure parameters, e.g. local variability
5. Explore further optical parameters using digital image processing operators
6. Analysis of the dependency of the derived parameters on aerosol optical depths measured independently
7. Simulation of the optical parameters using a radiative transfer model and comparison with parameters derived from the image sequence
8. Installation of more cameras and implementation of a real-time evaluation

Responsible: Mark Wenig

• Important information on external master thesis projects!

• Allg. Hinweise zur Form der Abschlussarbeiten am MIM