Dietrich Althausen

Dietrich Althausen studied physics from 1977 to 1982 at Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany. He received the Ph.D. degree in 1992. Since then, he has been a Senior Scientist with the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig. Within these 30 years, the focus of his work is the development and application of multiwavelength polarization Raman lidars for the vertically resolved observations of particles, clouds, and water vapor in the atmosphere. In 2002, he started the development of small and compact aerosol lidar systems, the “Polly” family. Meanwhile, these systems are applied worldwide in the frame of ACTRIS. An important result of this research is the observation and characterization of aerosol layers that are transported intercontinentally at different heights—in the troposphere and even in the stratosphere.