Murihiku-Southland hosts global climate research

Two German LACROS mobile atmospheric measuring stations near Invercargill Airport. Photo: R. Eisert

03/09/2025

On a stunning Southland day, a small crowd gathered at the MetService Office near Invercargill Airport to celebrate the official launch of the GO SOUTH II research project. Writer Archie Bailey from Motupōhue-Bluff (Kai Tahu/Waitaha) opened the event with a beautiful karakia she composed for the occasion (see English translation below):

Te Mauri o Te TaiaoTe Mana a Kewa artwork near the study site at Invercargill Airport. Photo: R. Eisert

E tū ana mātou i raro i te korowai o te raki.

Whakaroko ki kā reo o te hau, o te ua, o te moana.

Ko kā tohu o te taiao hei kaiako mā mātou.

Nā kā atua i tuku, hei arataki i a mātou.

Hei hāpai i tēnei kaupapa.

Hei whakahonore i te whenua.

Hei hono i a mātou ki kā pūkao o te ao tūroa.

Kia tiaho mai te māramatanga ki tō mātou ara.

Kia tau te rakimārie ki tēnei mahi.

Haumi ē! Hui ē! Tāiki ē!

The instrumentation is provided by the German Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) based in Leipzig. Photo: R. Eisert

Understanding clouds and cloud formation is critical for accurate climate and weather modelling. Clouds form when water vapour in the atmosphere condenses on small particles called aerosols from sea salt spray, volcanic dust, smoke from wildfires, human-made pollution, or other sources. Because aerosols determine when and where clouds form, tracking down sources of aerosols is a hot topic in climate science, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Ocean is both a major driver of global climate and a part of the Earth system where aerosol and cloud formation is poorly understood. Murihiku is an ideal place to pursue these urgent scientific questions: it is easily accessible, while its atmosphere is pristine and frequently dominated by air masses from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. GO SOUTH II is part of a large-scale German-New Zealand collaboration in atmospheric science that also includes the first deployment of the German research plane HALO in New Zealand starting this week, and measurements from the German research vessels Sonne and Polarstern in coming years.

To enable data collection in Murihiku, TROPOS shipped two containerised LACROS units all the way from Germany to Invercargill, where they will be recording high-quality scientific measurements for two years. LACROS stands for ‘Leipzig Aerosol and Cloud Remote Observations System’, a unique mobile measuring station for monitoring key atmospheric parameters, such as aerosols, clouds, and solar radiation. At the core of LACROS is the portable upward-facing multi-wavelength LiDAR developed by the German research team called ‘Polly’. Polly measures not only the density of aerosols at different heights in the atmosphere, but can also determine their type and origin (e.g., dust, ice crystals, marine aerosols). There is a global network of Polly deployments (PollyNET), with Invercargill marking the 50th successful Polly installation worldwide. Because the laser beam is so close to Invercargill Airport, the system has an automatic safety feature that scans for planes and turns off the laser whenever an aircraft is in the vicinity. During the launch event, visiting air traffic controllers from Invercargill Airport were able to witness first hand the LiDAR switching off as planes passed overhead.

The main New Zealand partners include the Air Quality Collective, MetService, and the University of Canterbury. Murihiku Regeneration was represented at the launch by Riki Nicholas.

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Murihiku-Southland hosts global climate research