Sanam Vardag

🎓 Congratulations Dr. Lukas Pilz!

Lukas has successfully completed his PhD, developing high-resolution WRF simulations for urban areas to improve CO₂ emission estimates as part of the Integrated Greenhouse gas Monitoring project (ITMS).

Well done, Lukas, and all the best for what’s next!

Title page of presentation

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting our group’s work at the IMKASF institute colloquium at @kit.edu I really enjoyed reconnecting with familiar faces, meeting new people, and the great questions and discussions. Thanks for the invitation!

My dear colleague Martin Kesternich is offering a PhD/Postdoc position in Environmental Economics @ Uni Augsburg starting Feb 2026

Interdisciplinary work with us @ Environmental Physics on the value of granular climate data possible 🔬

www.uni-augsburg.de/de/jobs-und-...

#climateactionscience

☀️New node up in Mannheim Sandhofen Pumpwerk 🚿
It marks the furthest north node of the UNICORN network.
Thanks to the Pumpwerk team and City of Mannheim for great support!
#ClimateAction #TrackingEmissions

Thanks! Yes, check out the full news item with quotes of the two great keynote speakers: www.iup.uni-heidelberg.de/en/about-us/...

🌱💦New insights into carbon–water coupling in dryland ecosystems:
We quantified how soil moisture and temperature regulate respiration across Australia, revealing nonlinear responses.

This marks the final publication of Eva-Marie Metz’s PhD: shorturl.at/Gq10h
Eva, its been a pleasure☀️ All the best!

WMO’s GAW programme put together guidelines to help cities better measure and track their greenhouse gas emissions. Proud to have contributed as a chapter lead author to this global community effort.

Guidelines: doi.org/10.59327/WMO...

#climateactionscience #urbanemissions

Inverse Estimation of Urban Methane Emissions Using Both Column and Surface Observations: An OSSE Study We present an observing system simulation experiment to evaluate a potential measurement network for estimating urban methane emissions Urban methane emissions are assessed using combined column ...

New paper: 🌇 Combining column and in-situ observations helps reduce uncertainties in urban CH₄ emissions and better capture trends. Thanks Jun and all coauthors for the great teamwork!

doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Our Institute of Environmental Phyiscs hosted the ITMS (Integrated Greenhouse Gas Monitoring System) General Assembly 2025. Day 1 was a great start! Inspiring keynotes and new insights into modelling results. Huge thanks to all presenters & attendees for good discussions! @uniheidelberg.bsky.social

✨ New paper! ✨
We ran WRF at 1 km over an urban area to test how physics schemes shape performance
🏙️ Urban & PBL schemes matter most
🌁 Station characteristics often dominate metrics

Why it matters: Better models = better GHG monitoring

doi.org/10.1016/j.at...

👏 Kudos to Lukas Pilz

Social norms and groups structure safe operating spaces in renewable resource use in a social–ecological multi-layer network model Abstract. Social norms are a key socio-cultural driver of human behaviour and have been identified as a central process in potential social tipping dynamics. They play a central role in governance and...

Thanks for letting me know! Here it is: doi.org/10.5194/esd-...

🙌🏻 New paper in Earth System Dynamics showing how social norms & group structures shape (un)sustainable futures. 🤝
Congrats to Max Bechthold on his first first-author pub + for leading a great interdisciplinary collaboration.

👉Paper: doi.org/10.5194/esd-...

50 Jahre Umweltphysik an der Universität Heidelberg – Wegweisende Forschung zum Fluss von Energie und Materie in der Umwelt
www.uni-heidelberg.de/de/newsroom/...
#universität #heidelberg #uniheidelberg #umweltphysik #klima #erde #forschung #jubiläum

pyVPRM: a next-generation vegetation photosynthesis and respiration model for the post-MODIS era Abstract. The Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (VPRM) is a well-established tool for estimating carbon exchange fluxes between the atmosphere and the biosphere. The gross primary produc...

Exciting news: Our pyVPRM paper led by @theogl.bsky.social has been published in GMD. The flexible further development of VPRM works with Sentinel‑2, MODIS & VIIRS and delivers high‑resolution and improved carbon flux estimates. Read it: doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4713-2025

🦄 The UNICORN CO₂ network is growing! 🚨
Red dots = installed sensors
Blue dots = confirmed locations coming soon 🌍

We’re building an urban network in Heidelberg and Mannheim of atmospheric CO₂ - one node at a time.

Stay tuned… the first data is coming in soon! 📊✨

🌍 Excited to share an important piece of work led by Jeongmin Yun on African carbon dynamics.

🛰️ Using multiple satellite data products (including OCO-2), we explore what drives interannual variability across Africa’s diverse ecosystems. 🌿

Check it out here: doi.org/10.1029/2025...

🦄 Meet the UNICORN Team: Prof. Dr. André Butz 
@abutz.bsky.social leads UNICORN with a focus on spectroscopic
techniques and novel instruments.
André fosters collaborative research across disciplines.

🌐 www.iup.uni-
heidelberg.de/en/research/atmosphere/atmosphere-and-remote-sensing-butz-group

Visited Wageningen University for Kims PhD defense. The campus was beautiful, the discussions with bright students were inspiring, and Kim gave a fantastic defense of an impressive thesis. Thanks so much for the invitation and warm welcome! 😊

🦄 Meet the UNICORN Team: Dr. Sanam Vardag

@sanamnv.bsky.social leads the UNICORN team with expertise in greenhouse gas simulations and urban emission quantification. She is driven by a commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration for climate solutions.

🌐 www.iup.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research/...

We’ve launched UNICORN – the University Network for CO₂ in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Area 🌍🌆
 
UNICORN establishes a dense, urban CO₂ monitoring network to support science-based climate policy at the city scale.
 
🔗 Website: www.iup.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research/...
 
@uniheidelberg.bsky.social

Thanks. I hope to make it next year 😊

Today I gave a remote talk at IWGGMS-21 on studying semi-arid regions with GOSAT 🌍 Really enjoyed many great talks—though couldn’t catch them all due to the time shift. Grateful to be part of this community! #IWGGMS #GOSAT #RemoteSensing #NIES

Great to see this work published. Congratulations

@abutz.bsky.social

#egu25 #climatescience #ghg #remotesensing #urbanmonitoring #itms… | Dr. Sanam Vardag 🌍 Excited to highlight our group's contributions to EGU General Assembly 2025! From GHG measurements and AI to ecosystem respiration and urban CO₂ networks — proud of the team’s broad reach! 🌟 🎤 T...

🌍 Excited for our group's work at #EGU25! From GHG sensing to AI-driven emission estimates & climate feedbacks. 🚀 Full list of contributions here: www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-san... #ClimateScience #GHG #RemoteSensing

CO2 Release During Soil Rewetting Shapes the Seasonal Carbon Dynamics in South American Temperate Region Combining ecosystem models with satellite-based top-down fluxes enhances our understanding of carbon dynamics in remote regions In the South American Temperate (SAT) region, an early increase in ...

New study uses satellite CO₂ data to reveal what drives seasonal carbon fluxes in South American temperate ecosystems. Turns out, rewetting dry soils spikes respiration before plants start photosynthesizing. A key process global models are missing. #CarbonCycle #RemoteSensing
doi.org/10.1029/2024...

The institute of environmental physics participated at the Girls Day 2025 to show girls how cool environmental physics can be and to motivate this career path www.iup.uni-heidelberg.de/en/node/552 #girlsday #empowerment #girlspower @uniheidelberg.bsky.social

Quantifying urban emissions is difficult due to high heterogeny of anthropogenic and biogenic emissions in cities. @sanamnv.bsky.social presents experimental urban network designs and emission quantification for enhanced emission verification.
#UrbanGHGSummit
#ICOSCities

It was a pleasure to host a workshop on atmospheric modelling within the ITMS project (“Integrated Greenhouse gas monitoring system for Germany”) project. I enjoyed fruitful discussions on how to best track Germany's greenhouse gas emissions.
#ITMS #Heidelberg @uniheidelberg.bsky.social

Seasonal and interannual variability in CO2 fluxes in southern Africa seen by GOSAT Abstract. The interannual variability in the global carbon sink is heavily influenced by semiarid regions. Southern hemispheric Africa has large semiarid and arid regions. However, there is only a spa...

🌍 New research on the southern African carbon cycle! 🛰️

We used satellite CO₂ data (2009–2018) to refine CO₂ flux estimates, revealing that photosynthesis drives interannual variability, while soil respiration after rewetting shapes the seasonal cycle.

📄 Read more: doi.org/10.5194/bg-2...