(up to about 2000 m) were shown to have lower mortality from coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke (-22% and-12% per 1000 m) [1] and an about 50% lower risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease compared with their counterparts living at lower altitudes [2]. In contrast, reported altitude effects on cancer mortality are still conflicting [3]. However, due to shared risk factors, e.g. obesity and...

The ascent of Mount Everest (altitude 8,848 m) by two climbers without supplementary oxygen in 1978 was a feat that astonished many physiologists; indeed, measurements of maximal oxygen uptake at lower altitudes suggested that it would be impossible. Data obtained in 1981 at extreme altitudes, including the summit itself, showed that man can tolerate the extreme hypoxia only by an enormous incr...

For the first time, three different temperature lidar methods are combined to obtain time-resolved complete temperature profiles with high altitude resolution over an altitude range from the planetary boundary layer up to the lower thermosphere (about 1–105 km). The Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at Kühlungsborn, Germany (54 N, 12 E) operates two lidar instruments, using three d...

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Detailed and accurate vertical distributions of cloud properties (such as cloud fraction, cloud phase, and cloud water content) and their changes are essential to accurately calculate the surface radiative flux and to depict the mean climate state. Surface and space-based active sensors including radar and lidar are ideal to provide this information because of their superior capability to detec...