The University of Bern is the State University of Kanton Bern, Switzerland. The Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) is one of the three physical Institutes at the University. The IAP consists of three departments: - Laser Department - Fluorescence Department - Microwave Department. Central electronic and mechanical workshops support all departments.

The Group Radiometric Methods for Environmental Monitoring, lead by Christian Mätzler, is one of three research groups in the Microwave Department (the other two being the Solar and the Atmospheric Physics Group, all being involved in microwave technology related to applications). The Microwave department has been involved in remote sensing since the late 1960's. The activity developed under the leadership of Prof. Erwin Schanda who headed the department until 1993. The present Department Head is Prof. Niklaus Kämpfer.

The Group "Radiometric Methods for Environmental Monitoring" has been studying the propagation, backscattering and emission of electromagnetic radiation by surface-based experiments of the surface and the troposphere for remote sensing at local, regional and global scale. While microwave radiometry is the key tool, other techniques (microwave scatterometry, sun photometry, refractive measurements of the atmosphere using GPS, and dielectric measurements of natural media) are complementary. Furthermore we contribute to the development of microwave radiative transfer models, e.g. in COST Action 712 for the application of satellite microwave radiometry in meteorology. Besides the development of instruments and observing methods, certain key observations (for total water vapour, total liquid water, total ozone and aerosol optical depth) are ongoing in Bern (560m) and/or at the alpine station Jungfraujoch (3580m) on a quasi-routine basis.