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November 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme that has funded the research of about 145,000 PhDs and postdocs in Europe and beyond, and equipped them with new knowledge and skills. Recipients discuss how the MSCA were a stepping stone to excelling in academia and industry.


CLOUD-MOTION is proud to be a part of the MSCA community and celebrates this success together with many other scientists from all over the world.

  • 19 - 20/05 and 26 - 27/05, 2021
Ilona Riipinen, Professor at Stockholm University, organised a virtual Workshop on CLOUD-related Modelling of atmospheric processes.

Implementation of the results of the experiments at CLOUD chamber at CERN in the regional and global modelling of atmospheric processes was discussed. 

CLOUD-MOTION Fellows participated in the discussions. Xuemei Wang from Leeds University presented her work “Regional modelling of aerosol-cloud interactions in an Amazonian convective environment”   
  • 20 - 23/04, 2021
CLOUD-MOTION Conference was held as a virtual event from April 20 to 23, 2021.

Fourteen of the ESRs of the EU MSCA project CLOUD-MOTION presented results of their individual research projects. They collected data for their publications and PhD thesis while working at CERN during the CLOUD Experiments; at their home institutions; during secondments to the project partners; or/and during a variety of other field and laboratory experiments.

Well-known research experts, external to CLOUD-MOTION, were invited to give talks.

More than 65 scientists from all partner institutions, and from the CLOUD-collaboration at CERN attended the conference. All three members of the CLOUD-MOTION External Advisory Committee joined the event as well.
  • 11/02/2021
  • 29/09 - 2/10, 2020
The CLOUD Collaboration Meeting took place from 29 September to 2 October, 2020, as a virtual event. Nearly all of the ESRs participated in the meeting.

Virtual breakout groups were organised for the effective discussion of the results of the latest CLOUD experiments at CERN. ESRs of CLOUD-MOTION coordinated 4 of the breakout working groups.

Neil Donahue (Carnegie Mellon University) chaired the discussion on the publications of results of CLOUD experiments.

During the CLOUD-MOTION session, chaired by the project Coordinator Joachim Curtius from Goethe University Frankfurt, the general progress of the project as well as the individual progress of young researchers were discussed.

The current situation with the covid-19 pandemic outbreak and its influence on the further progress of CLOUD-MOTION was evaluated. All partners found out solutions in order to fulfil the project obligation.

For example, a new partner, Palas GmbH, joined the project for ensuring the secondment of the ESR at KIT. It was suggested to organise CLOUD-MOTION Final Conference as a virtual event.

  • 21/09 - 25/09, 2020
The 3rd CLOUD-MOTION Summer School took place from 21 to 25 September, 2020, as a virtual training event. 

Despite the virtual format 21 ESRs and students from other institutions, partners of the CLOUD collaboration attended the virtual classes on Scientific Writing and plenary talks on various scientific topics, which were not offered during the previous training events. 

Presentations on “How to write a proposal for funding own research group”, “Preparing for a PhD defence”, “Management of EU projects” were offered by the management team of CLOUD-MOTION. 
  • 25/06, 2020
CLOUD Video created by CLOUD-MOTION Fellows is on-line!
  • 15/05, 2020
"The CLOUD collaboration has revealed a new mechanism that drives winter smog episodes in cities. The results, published yesterday in the journal Nature, could help inform policies for reducing urban particle pollution, which ranks fifth in the risk factors for mortality worldwide," - reports CERN News on Mai 14, 2020.

Nature NEWS AND VIEWS is explaining to the broad public outstanding results, presented in the paper "Rapid growth of new atmospheric particles by nitric acid and ammonia condensation": "Wang and colleagues calculate that the rapid condensation of ammonia and nitric acid occurs on timescales of several minutes in their experiments. The temperature heterogeneities observed in cities are sustained for similar timescales across various distances, potentially allowing clusters to grow to more-stable sizes at which further mass can be added to grow the particles. In other words, the new findings might explain why the initial stages of particle growth can be so fast in cities. Previously calculated cluster-growth rates in cities were averaged over space and time, and therefore did not capture this heterogeneity."
  • 02/03 - 13/03, 2020
Nearly all of the PhD students of CLOUD-MOTION attended the Winter School "Advanced analysis of atmosphere-surface interactions and feedbacks", organised by University of Helsinki, INAR (Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research) at the Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station in Southern Finland on March 2-13, 2020.

The course was based on intensive work in small groups, utilizing advanced programming tools for statistical analysis (e.g. MATLAB, Python, R).

The timetable involved a few short relevant lectures, with the main emphasis placed on intensive group work and final report written after the course. The course was aimed at PhD students in atmospheric, biospheric and earth system sciences. During the course the students utilized long-term data on concentrations, composition and fluxes of aerosols, air ions, trace gases and greenhouse gases as well as meteorological and ecophysiological variables measured at field station in order to learn advanced data treatment and data analysis methods.

Four different working groups studied data from previous CLOUD campaigns. Ice nucleation, nucleation and growth experiments have been investigated. Next to this, CLOUD data have been used to predict the impact of monoterpenes and isoprene on global temperature.

  • 24/02 - 28/02, 2020
The CLOUD14 Data Workshop and CLOUD-MOTION Meeting were held at the Sofia Cultural Centre near Helsinki, Finland, from February 24 to February 28, 2020, organised by Helsinki University.

Breakout groups on topics such as "Integrated Size Distribution Analysis", "CLOUDy: Nucleation runs with INP instruments", etc. started their work early in the morning on February 24. Two days of the agenda were planned for the plenary sessions. During these sessions young scientists presented how their research projects are developing. The status of the publications related to the CLOUD experiment at CERN was discussed also.

During the meeting Research and Training Supports Groups (RTSGs), which were established for each of the ESR of CLOUD-MOTION, met in order to discuss the achieved progress.

During the CLOUD-MOTION session Coordinator of the EU Project CLOUD-MOTION Professor Joachim Curtius from Frankfurt University informed project partners that the Interim Payment from the REA would be distributed as it was foreseen by the Consortium Agreement. He also put up for the discussion the Sky Lounge at Vienna University as a venue for CLOUD-MOTION Final Conference, as it was proposed by Professor Paul Winkler from Vienna University. The suggestion was accepted.

One of the working groups during the meeting continued to implement the storyboard for the CLOUD-MOTION video. The storyboard was worked out by the young researchers of the project during the 2nd CLOUD-MOTION Summer School in Wengen (June 2019). The final CLOUD-MOTION video will be published soon.

  • 16/09 - 03/12, 2019
The COSMIC RAY RUN, CLOUD14 experiment, took place from 16 September to the beginning of December 2019 (no East Area beams during LS2, 2019–2020).

The aims of the CLOUD14 run were as follows:

1. Activation properties of secondary aerosol for cloud droplets and ice particles: Aerosol particles were nucleated and grown in the CLOUD chamber from vapours under various conditions (chemical species, relative humidity, temperature, and ion concentrations). A wide range of secondary aerosol were investigated (inorganic, pure biogenic, multicomponent, marine, and urban).
The cloud activation properties were investigated for liquid droplets (cloud condensation nuclei, CCN) and ice particles (ice nuclei, IN).

2. Effect of charge on cloud microphysics: A new CCN generator is being developed to produce highly charged CCN of either polarity. Expansion (CLOUDy) experiments were performed with highly-charged CCN and compared with similar experiments using uncharged CCN.
  • 14/11, 2019
 "Dealing with media questions!" Training Event was held in the CERN Training Centre on November 14, 2019, during the CLOUD14 experiment.
It was presented by the UK company Inside Edge.

One of the hardest media skills is to answer journalists' questions - whether difficult or simple - concisely, with credibility and conviction. Regardless of the questions you are faced with, your aim is to get your key messages over. This workshop enabled the participants to do just that.

Objectives of the training event were:
•    To get the message across with credibility and conviction in speaking with the media
•    Understanding how the media works
•    Knowing what journalists want
•    Working with key messages
•    Using sound-bites
•    Avoiding typical traps

  • 29/10 - 01/11, 2019
The CLOUD/CLOUD-MOTION collaboration meeting took place at CERN from October 29 to November 1, 2019. 

Representatives from all CLOUD-MOTION partner institutions, as well as External Advisory Committee members Claudia Stubenrauch (LMD) and Oliver Bischof (TSI) participated in the second Supervisory Board meeting. Coordinator of CLOUD-MOTION Joachim Curtius from Frankfurt University reported the achievements of CLOUD-MOTION. The progress of the project so far was discussed and evaluated.
  • 17/10, 2019
Jasper Kirkby, PI of CLOUD-MOTION at CERN, received the Benjamin Y. H. Liu Award at the 37th Annual Conference of the American Association for Aerosol Research at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon.
  • 10/10, 2019
CLOUD is on the public CERN home page  with a news story on the current CLOUD14 run  (Image: CERN).

"CERN’s colossal complex of accelerators is in the midst of a two-year shutdown for upgrade work. But that doesn’t mean all experiments at the Laboratory have ceased to operate. The CLOUD experiment, for example, has just started a data run that will last until the end of November.

The CLOUD experiment studies how ions produced by high-energy particles called cosmic rays affect aerosol particles, clouds and the climate" [read more]
  • 14/09 - 15/09, 2019
CLOUD Experiment was presented at the CERN Open Days on September 14-15, 2019.

CLOUD fellows explained to the visitors the aims of the CLOUD Experiment at CERN.

One of the aims of the EU MSCA-ITN (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Networks) projects is to bring young scientists from all other the world working together.  As reported by Loïc Gonzalez Carracedo from Vienna University, one of the CLOUD-MOTION PhD students, CLOUD fellows gave talks in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Finnish. They also used posters, simple experiments on making "a cloud in a bottle", and showed videos of the CLOUD facility at CERN.  

More than 75,000 people visited CERN Open Days 2019. CLOUD Experiment attracted large interest of visitors of this event.
  • 14/06 - 20/06, 2019
The 2nd CLOUD-MOTION Summer School took place from June 14 to June 20, 2019, in Wengen, Switzerland. It was organised by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). All of the fifteen ESRs of CLOUD-MOTION participated in the Summer School.

Leading scientist in the research field of atmospheric aerosols, representatives of the partner institutions of CLOUD-MOTION Imad El Haddad (PSI), Jasper Kirkby (CERN), Ken Carslaw (Leeds University), Rick Flagan (California Institute of Technology), Frank Stratmann (TROPOS), Neil Donahue (Carnegie Mellon University), Doug Worsnop (Aerodyne Res.), Federico Bianchi (Helsinki University), Martin Gysel (PSI), as well as invited lecturers, external to CLOUD-MOTION, Professor Markus Leuenberger and Professor Fortunat Joos from University of Bern as well as Dr. Anja Eichler from PSI, gave talks and supervised courses on scientific writing.

Coordinator of CLOUD-MOTION Joachim Curtius from Frankfurt University initiated and chaired the session on the Global Climate Change. Students of the Summer School prepared their presentations to this very important issue and discussed the current situation.
The CLOUD-MOTION fellows also had an opportunity to start creating a youtube-clip on the CLOUD experiment.
  • 28/05 - 07/06, 2019
From May 28 to June 7, 2019, five CLOUD-MOTION fellows visited Aerodyne Research Inc., USA. During this secondment young researchers learned how the SME is working. The programme of the secondment included many talks from different scientists at Aerodyne research. The fellows conducted an experiment and learned new analysis techniques to apply to the data. They had also an opportunity to present their own scientific plans and the EU project CLOUD-MOTION at the group meeting.
  • 25/03 - 28/03, 2019
The Fundumental Mass Spectrometry Workshop took place from March 25 to March 28, 2019, at Wuppertal University, Germany. This training event was organised by TOFWERK and University of Wuppertal. Both of the institutions are partners of the EU project CLOUD-MOTION.

Hendrik Kersten from University of Wuppertal:"From the 25th until the 28th of March 2019 we had another great fundamental mass spectrometry workshop, thanks to the 20 participants from all over the world. Topics ranged from "Building Kit-MS", "Life of a Molecule", "Sample to Signal" and "Praxis". We had a look inside some instruments to see what black-boxes are made of, talked about the fundamental designs of MS, how ions move in different parts of the MS, how we generate ions, some basics about plasmas, what might happen to ions on their way to the detector and how we eventually interpret the recorded mass spectrum. We thank all participants for their contribution to have made this a wonderful workshop with fruitful and lively discussions. "
  • 11/02 - 15/02, 2019
From February 11 to February 15, 2019, the CLOUD community met for CLOUD-MOTION Collaboration Meeting and Data Workshop in Stockholm.

Stockholm University as one of CLOUD partners organised the meeting. Ilona Riipinen, Professor at the Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry of Stockholm University, contributed to the success of the event with supportive logistics and by immediate reacting to the significant fluctuations in the number of participants.
  
Coordinator of the EU Project CLOUD-MOTION Professor Joachim Curtius from Frankfurt University informed the community about the progress in the project.

Nearly all of the Early Stage Researches of CLOUD-MOTION gave talks on their topics such as "CLOUD13 urban nucleation/growth" (Ruby Marten), "CLOUD global/regional modelling" (Ananth Ranjithkumar, Xuemei Wang), "CLOUD14 DAQ/CLOUD13 DAQ overview and experience" (Stefan Weber), "Comparison of MSA and sulfuric acid production from DMS with model results" (Jiali Shen), "CLOUD13 NH3 measurements with the H3O+ TOF" (Joschka Pfeifer), "Kinetic nucleation of sulphuric acid particles at -10C" (Guillaume Marie), "Preliminary TD-DMA results on cresol oxidation" (Lucia Caudillo), and "Cloud condensation nuclei and hygroscopicity results" (Farnoush Ataei).

All of the ESRs were involved in scheduling the CLOUD14 experiment at CERN and in discussing the planned scientific papers. ESR at KIT Barbara Bertozzi and ESR at TROPOS Farnoush Ataei moderated the session on designing the ice nucleation parts of the CLOUD14 experiment.

Three of the former CLOUD-ITN young researchers Jonathan Duplissy, Siegfried Schobesberger, and Federico Bianchi also participated in the Workshop.
  • 17/09 - 04/12, 2018
The CLOUD13 experiment took place from 17 September to the beginning of December 2018, with the first week involving instrument setup and the final two weeks just using cosmic rays as the source for ions in the CLOUD chamber (no East Area beams).

The aims of the CLOUD13 run were to extend and explore further the new findings from CLOUD12. These aims were fully achieved.

Marine nucleation and growth involving iodine compounds and dimethylsulphide were investigated. This was the first time we have studied dimethylsulphide (DMS) in the CLOUD chamber. In the marine environment DMS is produced by phytoplankton and it is the largest natural source of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere, accounting for around 20% of global SO2 in the absence of volcanoes.

Multi-component aerosol particle nucleation and growth was the next challenge, which was approached. Here the CLOUD collaboration aimed to complete the measurements needed to parameterise multicomponent nucleation over the entire range of tropospheric conditions for global aerosol and climate models.

For the third part of CLOUD13 runs on anthropogenic aerosol nucleation and growth were carried out. Previous CLOUD11/12 studies of particle nucleation and growth from anthropogenic volatile organic compounds were extended, included an aromatic vapour.

Nucleation and growth were, in particular, studied under high condensation sink conditions to understand why new particle formation is observed in Chinese megacities under such conditions, in contradiction with expectations.

  • 25/10/2018
The CLOUD-MOTION Project Check Meeting took place on October 25, 2018, at CERN. All the Fellows, the PIs, the most of the representatives from the Associated Partners of the project as well as External Advisory Committee Members attended this event. This gave the opportunity to Project Officer from the REA (EC) Ms Donini, who visited the CLOUD-MOTION Project Check Meeting, to discuss the progress of the project with the participants.

Joachim Curtius, Coordinator of CLOUD-MOTION, opened the meeting and invited the participants to introduce themselves and present their roles in the project. 

After the talk of Ms Donini on the common structure of the EU-MSCA projects, Joachim Curtius gave an overview of the progress achieved so far. He reported that the recruitment process was successfully completed, and the project was developing in accordance with its Grant Agreement. Some small adjustments such as changing the place of the Summer School 2019 or shifting the Winter School to the year 2020 were also addressed. 

During the meeting each Early Stage Researcher of CLOUD-MOTION introduced her/himself to the audience and outlined the future research plans within the project in a brief talk. Afterwards the project fellows could use the opportunity to receive answers to their questions from the Project Officer directly.

Jasper Kirkby, the CLOUD-MOTION PI at CERN and CLOUD Experiment Leader, guided the visiting tour to the CLOUD Chamber. In the end of the day the EAC Members Oliver Bischof from TSI and Thorsten Hoffmann from U-Mainz explained to the project Fellows their tasks as ombudsmen of the project.

  • 13/08 - 24/08, 2018
Summer School "Formation and growth of atmospheric aerosols" took place at Hyytiälä Foresty Field Station, Finland, from August 13 to 24. The Summer School was organized by Prof. Markku Kulmala and Dr. Katrianne Lehtipalo from Helsinki University.

PIs of CLOUD-MOTION Armin Hansel (Ionicon), Doug Worsnop (Aerodyne), Sonja Klee (TOFWERK), Joonas Vanhaanen (Airmodus), Neil Donahue (CMU), Joachim Curtius (Goethe University Frankfurt) and Ottmar Möhler (KIT) also gave talks to the students of the Summer School.

Almost all of the fellows of the CLOUD-MOTION project participated at the first CLOUD-MOTION Summer School.
  • 11/06 - 16/07, 2018
The CLOUD13T technical run took place from 11 June to 6 July 2018. The aims of the CLOUD13T run were to investigate the ion production and loss rates, and ion non-uniformities in the CLOUD chamber.
  • 15/06/2018
CERN newsletter published
Cloud(y) climate studies at CERN
 by Stefan Weber

"Continuous improvements to the CLOUD facility as well as to the instruments combined with the state of the art know-how available at CERN have enabled a steady increase in the measurement capabilities and resulted in numerous high impact publications. This combination reflects CLOUD's world leading role in experimental laboratory studies of atmospheric aerosol nucleation and growth." [more]
  • 04/06 - 08/06, 2018
CLOUD/CLOUD-MOTION Workshop took place in Cascais, Portugal, from June 4 to June 8, 2018.

Almost all of the young researchers, who have already started as Early Stage Researchers of CLOUD-MOTION participated in this collaboration meeting. They gave short introductory talks or presented achieved results. Also they used the possibility to discuss their PhD projects with well-known experts of the world aerosol research.

Coordinator of CLOUD-MOTION, Professor of Goethe University Frankfurt Joachim Curtius, informed the collaboration that all the partner organisations ended the recruitment process for the project. All of the fifteen ESRs of the project will start the employment contracts not later than September 1, 2018. He reminded the project PIs about the obligations of Grant Agreement to fill in the Researcher Declarations at the Participants Portal. The next CLOUD-MOTION deliverables and events for the year 2019 were highlighted.

The June 2018 run of the CLOUD chamber at CERN, the CLOUD13 Experiment at CERN, and the agenda of the Project Check planned for the October 2018 were discussed.

Hotel Baia hosted the CLOUD/CLOUD-MOTION Workshop and provided a splendid space for plenary sessions and for the work of breakout groups.
  • 05/02 - 09/02, 2018
From 5 to 9 February, 2018, the CLOUD community met for a CLOUD-MOTION Collaboration meeting and a Data Workshop in Innsbruck.

IONICON, one of the industrial partners of CLOUD-MOTION organised the meeting, which was hosted by Innsbruck University. 

Coordinator of the EU Project CLOUD-MOTION Professor Joachim Curtius from Frankfurt University informed the community about the progress in the recruitment of the young researchers for the project. The newly started Early Stage Researchers Wiebke Scholz (Ionicon), Barbara Bertozzi (KIT), Joschka Pfeifer (CERN), Ruby Marten (PSI), and Stefan Weber (CERN) introduced themselves to the CLOUD collaboration. All of them were involved in scheduling the CLOUD13 experiment at CERN and in discussing the planned scientific papers. 

The started young researchers of CLOUD-MOTION could use a brilliant opportunity to start the outreach activity directly during the CLOUD Workshop in Innsbruck. They supervised an experimental workshop, which was organised by Professor Armin Hansel (IONICON) for the pupils of a secondary school. The pupils attended selected sessions of the CLOUD Data Workshop. Following this half-a-day experiment CLOUD-MOTION ESRs gave talks to the pupils on the aerosol studies and scientific aspects of the CLOUD-MOTION project.  

  • 26/10/2017
Principal Investigators (PIs) of the EU project CLOUD-MOTION, representatives of the Associated Partners Organisations, members of EAC, and CLOUD Collaboration Partners during the kickoff meeting at CERN on October 26th, 2017
On October 26th, 2017, the Kick-off Meeting of the project took place at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.

Coordinator of CLOUD-MOTION Joachim Curtius, professor of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, informed all participants that CLOUD-TRAIN (a former ITN project of the CLOUD collaboration) has been high-lighted by the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?artid=45936, and presented the overview of the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Project CLOUD-MOTION.

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