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Dynamical Meteorology Group

The group headed by Rein Rõõm is the smallest and youngest by age of the Department of Atmospheric Physics. Compared to the other groups in the Department (which all work on different aspects of radiation in the atmosphere from either the energetic and/or the remote sensing aspect and which also contain monitoring aspects in their work), this group has a pure theoretical orientation and works on dynamic atmospheric modelling including pollution transport.

The scientists of this group contribute significantly to the development of the non-hydrostatic kernel of the future high-resolution version of HIRLAM, the common weather forecast model chain developed by the Scandinavian countries, which is also used by many other European national weather services. Their speciality is the use of pressure for the vertical coordinates in order to circumvent known problems with other (e.g. terrain-following) coordinates, which are currently used by other models like the German Lokal Modell (LM) for the same purpose. Also due to this competition the work of the group is both new and of high quality. The group works on the leading international edge in the field of non-hydrostatic atmospheric modelling, which is documented by several papers in one of the most important journals in meteorology.

The group plans to work also in future along these lines. It also plans to maintain or strengthen its highly developed connections in Europe (e.g. by more active participation in EU-projects) and its currently weak relations to the Estonian Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (this Institute might at a later stage  implement their own model chains for regional weather and pollution prediction). We consider this as absolutely the right direction to go; and we believe that the group can play a central role in future Estonian weather and pollution prediction. The group intends to move formally and physically to Tartu University, Institute of Environmental Physics, in order to establish meteorology in Estonia as part of physics education with a very strong link to mathematics. The group clearly has the necessary competence, which is also demonstrated by the fact that students of mathematics have been attracted to the group. While the Evaluators considered the goal of this intended move to be of high importance, they felt that the loss of the group could significantly weaken the atmospheric physics part of Tartu Observatory.

Apart from three Estonian Science Foundation projects the group also successfully applied for grants from several institutions in Estonia, which clearly demonstrated their ability to transfer theoretical knowledge effectively from research to application. This will give the group very good chances to successfully compete for grants in the 5th Framework of EU funding and follow-ups. Being the only group on dynamical meteorology in Estonia their national co-operation on the research aspects is naturally limited but by far outweighed by their strong international co-operation which is considered excellent. The evaluation committee considers this group as the strongest group of the three groups not yet evaluated; we rate the group as excellent.

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Institute of Environmental Physics

The main target of research of the institute under the lead of Hannes Tammet is aerosol research. Within this wide research field the group, having its roots in air electricity, specialised in the very small fraction of aerosol particles, because electrical methods can be used successfully to measure this kind of aerosol. Aerosols not only play an important role in pollution but also becomes increasingly important in climate research. It is well known that aerosols not only influence the Earth radiation budget but also they are the precursors of all clouds. Aerosol size and composition impacts the way clouds develop and interact with radiation. The importance of aerosols in climate research is completely at variance with our understanding of aerosol formation – which begins with the small particles investigated by the Institute - and its crude implementation in climate models. The Institute has not only developed a unique measurement device, which is able to quantify with a so far unsurpassed integration period and width the size spectrum of the smallest particles. In addition, physical models are developed to simulate aerosol development, which might become part of future generations of climate models.

The research of the institute is performed at a very high level, which is documented by the exceptionally large number of papers in reviewed international journals. The head of the group is a leading scientist in the field. The instrument developed by the Institute, although subject to continuous improvement, is now being built by a private enterprise and already competes successfully on the world market for aerosol measuring devices. The Institute was able to successfully apply for five national research grants on this topics and could even get research and development money from two non-national funds, one of them a participation in an EU 5th framework project. In addition to the small particle fraction aerosol research and development pursued by the head of the Institute and most of his scientific staff (Eduard Tamm, Jaan Salm and Aadu Mirme), aerosol evolution in general  and its effects are also studied on regional and global scale and its effects on atmospheric transparency by the senior researcher Hanno Ohvril, who is also informally in charge of teaching administration. He also was able to apply successfully for two national research grants and to get some external money in the frame of co-operative work with the University of Granada, Spain.

There is also a very good and intense co-operation with almost all groups of the Department of Atmospheric Physics of Tartu Observatory, who also contribute very significantly to the quality of teaching (without extra payment) at Tartu University. The Institute of Environmental Physics of the University Tartu and the Department of Atmospheric Physics of Tartu Observatory complement each other in a very efficient and synergistic way. Other external national partners are the Estonian Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (mainly data provision), the Estonian Marine Institute (mainly teaching services) and the Pärnu Institute of Health Resort Treatment and Medical Rehabilitation (investigation of health effects of UV radiation and aerosols). On the international level the institute is collaborating with many Scandinavian and two other European institutes as can be inferred also from co-authored papers.

Finally, we must mention the very strong involvement of the institute in the GLOBE programme, (organized by Ülle Kikas besides her research and teaching work) in which Estonia seems to take the lead in Europe. The GLOBE programme originated in the U.S.A. and promotes environmental observations (and thus the urgently needed interest) in science already on school level. Four national and even one international workshop has been held and organized by the institute. The Evaluators were impressed by the Internet presentation of the data from the automatic meteorological station. This programme provides an excellent way of involving schoolchildren in Estonia  in fostering  awareness of environmental issues.

The Evaluators support the plans of the Institute to fill the Open Chair of Dynamical Meteorology. This will provide a thorough physically-based education in meteorology for Estonia in the future.

Overall judgement: excellent

Tallinn, March 10, 2001

The Evaluation Panel:
PROF. ILKKA TUOMINEN
PROF. CLEMENS SIMMER
PROF. CESARE BARBIERI
PROF. KEN PHILLIPS (CHAIR)
PROF. CLAES-INGVAR LAGERKVIST