IRTG Travel Grants Programme

PhD researcher Nina Mahernd joined the ICCP conference 2024 in Jeju, South Korea

Thanks to the (AC)³ IRTG Travel Grant, I had the opportunity to attend the International Conference on Clouds and Precipitation (ICCP). ICCP 2024 was hosted by the Korean Meteorological Society (KMS) and the Korean National Institute of Meteorological Sciences (NIMS) and was held at the International Convention Center JEJU from 14 to 19 July. I was one of over 500 participants from more than 40 countries who visited the existing location of the South Korean island Jeju.

The conference covered a wide range of topics in clouds and precipitation, including aerosol-cloud interactions, ice nucleating particles, ice multiplication processes, orographic clouds, and polar clouds. The sessions on mixed-phase clouds were of particular interest to me. Personally, I found the discussions on secondary ice production enlightening. There is still a lot of discussion on this topic, with different experts disagreeing on how important SIP is compared to primary ice production, and which SIP processes are relevant in different types of clouds. There are many unknowns waiting to be explored through research.

On Monday, I presented a poster on my forthcoming paper on how riming affects the spatial variability of ice water in mixed-phase clouds. To my delight, my poster was well attended and generated many discussions. I talked with interested colleagues well past the scheduled time. I especially enjoyed the discussions with Timothy Juliano (NCAR), who plans to investigate the spatial variability of ice water in similar clouds using LES.

Our host did an excellent job of organizing and making us feel welcome. After complaints about the lack of vegetarian food at lunch on Monday, there was a separate vegetarian buffet starting on Tuesday with almost as many choices as the omnivore buffet. I enjoyed the usual conference-related social activities such as joint dinners with colleagues and took the opportunity to visit a Buddhist temple on Wednesday afternoon, when we had free time. I reconnected with Brian Lo and Rosie Mammatt from the University of Reading, whose group I visited in March of this year. It was good to see Matt Shupe and Gabriella Wallentin again. I also really enjoyed conversations with Martina Krämer (Gutenberg University Mainz) and Corinna Hoose (KIT).

I enjoyed my stay in Jeju, which I probably would never have visited if I had not been given this opportunity. Attending the ICCP gave me many new ideas for my research and opportunities to network and collaborate with colleagues in my field.

A list of all funded travel grants can be found on the IRTG page here.