A B S T R A C T B O O K L E T

5th VAO Symposium

Bern / Switzerland

3- 6 February,2020

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Programme: Tuesday 4 February 2020

10:00 Arrival, welcome coffee & registration

11:00 Welcome Notes Session Chair: Prof Dr Markus Leuenberger

Prof Dr Christian Leumann, Rector University of Bern

Dr Christian Barth, Director General of the Bavarian Ministry of the

Environment and Consumer Protection, Germany

Christoph Neuhaus, State Councillor of the Canton of Berne

Dr Paul Steffen, Vice Director of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN)

Prof Michael Bittner, VAO Coordinator and Chair of the VAO Board

Video Welcome Note by André Jol, Head of the Adaptation and LULUCF

Division, European Environment Agency

12:00 Session I: Atmospheric and climatic variability (gases) Session Chair: Dr Martin Steinbacher

12:00 Key Note: Prof Michael Rast, ESA/ESRIN, Italy 12:30 THE JOSEFINA PROJECT: MONITORING AND SIMULATION OF URBAN POLLUTION PLUMES

Frank Baier, Ehsan Khorsandi, Thilo Erbertseder

12:45 NINE YEARS OF CONTINUOUS CO2 AND δ13C STABLE ISOTOPE RATIO MEASUREMENTS AT JUNGFRAUJOCH INTERPRETED WITH ATMOSPHERIC TRANSPORT SIMULATIONS Simone M. Pieber, Béla Tuzson, Stephan Henne, Ute Karstens, Dominik Brunner, Armin Jordan, Heiko Moossen, Michael Rothe, Martin Steinbacher, Lukas Emmenegger

13:00 Lunch and group photo / Closed Side-meeting (Room S357)

14:00 Session I: Atmospheric and climatic variability (cont’d, gases) Session Chair: Dr Martin Steinbacher

14:00 SIMULATING ATMOSPHERIC TRACER TRANSPORT TOWARDS AND CONCENTRATIONS AT THE HIGH ALTITUDE OBSERVATORY JUNGFRAUJOCH Stephan Henne, Dominik Brunner, Martin K. Vollmer, Martin Steinbacher, Stefan Reimann, Lukas Emmenegger

14:15 Session I: Atmospheric and climatic variability (circulation) Session Chair: Dr Martin Steinbacher

14:15 CHANGE OF THE ACITIVITY OF PLANETARY WAVES: POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE OZONE DISTRIBUTION Lisa Küchelbacher, Michael Bittner

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14:30 INFLUENCE OF ATMOSPHERIC WINDS ON THE PROPAGATION DIRECTION OF GRAVITY WAVES Patrick Hannawald, Sabine Wüst, Michael Bittner, Friederike Lilienthal, Christoph Jacobi

14:45 TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION ANOMALIES AT MOUNT ZUGSPITZE IN RELATION TO NORTH-ATLANTIC-EUROPEAN ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION AND TELECONNECTION PATTERNS Jucundus Jacobeit, Markus Homann

15:00 FIRST HINTS FOR THE INFLUENCE OF PLANETARY WAVES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF MIDLATITUDE EXTREME TEMPERATURE EVENTS Dominik Laux, Lisa Küchelbacher, Michael Bittner

15:15 VARIABILITY OF THE BRUNT-VÄISÄLÄ FREQUENCY AT THE OH*-LAYER HEIGHT AT LOW AND MID LATITUDES Sabine Wüst, Michael Bittner, Jeng-Hwa Yee, Martin G. Mlynczak, James M. Russell

15:30 Coffee break

16:00 Session I: Atmospheric and climatic variability (aerosol) Session Chair: Prof Dr Ernest Weingartner

16:00 Key Note: Prof Dr Tuukka Petäjä, University of Helsinki 16:30 MULTIDECADAL TREND ANALYSIS OF AEROSOL PROPERTIES AT A GLOBAL SCALE: CHARACTERISTIC

OF HIGH ALTITUDE STATIONS M. Collaud Coen, E. Andrews, B. Brem, H. Flentje, K. Sellegri, A. Marinoni, C. Couret, T. Arsov

16:45 IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS OF BLACK CARBON PARTICLE SCAVENGING IN CLOUDS AT THE HIGH-ALPINE SITE JUNGFRAUJOCH Martin Gysel-Beer, Ghislain Motos, Joel C. Corbin, Marco Zanatta, Urs Baltensperger, Robin L. Modini, Julia Schmale

17:00 AVHRR AOD UNCERTAINTY PROPAGATION Thomas Popp

17:15 VOLCANIC SIGNATURES IN THE 20 YEARS TIME SERIES OF ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS AT THE SCHNEEFERNERHAUS Werner Thomas, B. Briel, T. Elste, H. Flentje, R. Holla, F. Klein, U. Köhler, D. Kubistin, I. Mattis, C. Plass-Dülmer

17:30 OBSERVATORY MILEŠOVKA: OVERVIEW OF CLOUD, PRECIPITATION AND AEROSOL RESEARCH Pavel Sedlák

17:45 Session I: Atmospheric and climatic variability (clouds) Session Chair: Prof Dr Urs Baltensperger

17:45 RACLETS CAMPAIGN: A QUEST FOR THE ORIGIN OF ICE CRYSTALS IN ALPINE CLOUDS Jan Henneberger, Alexander Beck, Zane Dedekind, Annika Lauber, Julie Pasquier, Fabiola Ramelli, Michael Rösch, Jörg Wieder, Zamin Kanji, Ulrike Lohmann, Claudia Mignani, Michael Lehning, Benjamin Walter, Alexis Berne, Athanasios Nenes, Aikaterini Bougiatioti, Johannes Bühl, Ronny Engelmann, Maxime Hervo, Yves-Alain Roulet

18:00 REMOTE SENSING OF THE UPPER MESOSPHERE / LOWER THERMOSPHERE (UMLT): GRAVITY WAVES AND A SHORT GLIMPSE ON INFRASOUND (PROJECTS VOCAS-ALP AND WAVE) René Sedlak, Sabine Wüst, Carsten Schmidt, Alexandra Zuhr, Michael Bittner

18:15 A NEW INSTRUMENT FOR CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF ICE NUCLEATING PARTICLES Cyril Brunner, Zamin A. Kanji

18:30 CLIMATE SERVICES FOR THE ALPINE REGION: THE ROLE OF SEASONAL FORECAST FOR MANAGING CLIMATE INFORMATION

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Marcello Petitta, Alice Crespi, Mattia Callegari, Felix Greifeneder, Claudia Notarnicola, Marc Zebisch, Alberto Troccoli

18:45 10 YEARS OF MESOPAUSE TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH STATION “SCHNEEFERNERHAUS” Carsten Schmidt, Lisa Küchelbacher, Patrick Hannawald, Sabine Wüst, Michael Bittner

19:00 End of Session I

Wednesday 5 February 2020

09:00 Session II : Climate impact on Alpine environment, hazards and risks Session Chair: PD Dr Sabine Wüst

09:00 Key Note: Dr Marianne Elmi, Vice Secretary General Alpine Convention

09:20 Key Note: Dr Petr Blížkovský, Secretary General Committee of the Regions

09:45 DAVOS-WEISSFLUHJOCH: AN ALPINE HOTSPOT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONEMENTAL OBSERVATIONS Marty C., Bebi P., Phillips M., Fierz C.

10:00 CZECH GROUND MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS AND COLLABORATION WITH MOUNTAIN OBSERVATORIES Chum, Jaroslav, Jan Laštovička, Ronald Langer, Jiří Baše, Jan Rusz, Igor Strhárský

10:15 Coffee break

10:45 Session II : Climate impact on Alpine environment, hazards and risks (cont’d) Session Chair: PD Dr Sabine Wüst

10:45 CHANGING SNOW COVER CONDITIONS IN EUROPEAN MOUNTAINS BASED ON A 35-YEAR TIME SERIES OF HIGH RESOLUTION REMOTE SENSING DATA Andreas Dietz, Hu Zhongyang, Ya-Lun Tsai, Claudia Künzer

11:00 ALPSENSE: ALPINE REMOTE SENSING OF CLIMATE-INDUCED NATURAL HAZARDS: A MULTI-METHOD HAZARD PREDICTION Krautblatter Michael, Mayer Christoph, Münzer Ulrich, Siegert Florian, Stilla Uwe, Wunderlich Thomas, Kraushaar Sabine, Keuschnig Markus, Leinauer Johannes

11:15 End of Session II 11:15 Session III : Alpine water cycle

Session Chair: Dr Marc Zebisch 11:15 A VERY HIGH-RESOLUTION REGIONAL CLIMATE SIMULATION FOR CENTRAL EUROPE AND COUPLED

HYDROLOGICAL AND SNOW COVER SIMULATIONS Michael Warscher, Patrick Laux, Ulrich Strasser, Harald Kunstmann

11:30 SIMULATED FUTURE RUNOFF REGIME CHANGES FOR A GLACIERIZED MONITORING CATCHMENT IN THE ÖTZTAL ALPS, AUSTRIA Ulrich Strasser, Michael Warscher, Florian Hanzer

11:45 RUNOFF SEPARATION OF THE PARTNACH RIVER BY MEANS OF DIFFERENT METHODS Stefan Weishaupt, Karl-Friedrich Wetzel

12:00 NEW TRANSIENT HYDROLOGICAL SCENARIOS AND TIME OF EMERGENCE FOR ALPINE CATCHMENTS IN SWITZERLAND Regula Mülchi, Ole Rössler, Jan Schwanbeck, Rolf Weingartner, Olivia Martius

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12:15 Eagle Wings Project

12:45 Lunch

14:00 Poster Exhibition (author attendance) (Session I – V)

1 COMPLEX MONITORING OF THE ATMOSPHERE AT BEO MOUSSALA Christo Angelov

1 WATER VAPOUR TRENDS IN SWITZERLAND FROM RADIOMETRY, FTIR AND GNSS GROUND STATIONS Leonie Bernet, Elmar Brockmann, Thomas von Clarmann, Niklaus Kämpfer,, Emmanuel Mahieu, Christian Mätzler, Gunter Stober, Klemens Hocke

1 SMALL-SCALE SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF AEROSOL PARAMETERS AROUND JUNGFRAUJOCH, SWITZERLAND (3580 M A.S.L.). PARALLEL AEROSOL MEASUREMENTS AT AN ADJACENT MOUNTAIN RIDGE Nicolas Bukowiecki, Benjamin Brem, Maxime Hervo, Martine Collaud Coen, Stéphane Affolter, Markus Leuenberger, Günther Wehrle, Urs Baltensperger, Martin Gysel

1 CLIMATE RELEVANT OPTICAL AND MICROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WILDFIRE PARTICULATE MATTER IN THE FREE TROPOSPHERE Benjamin T. Brem, Günther Wehrle and Martin Gysel-Beer

1 RADIOCARBON MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC METHANE C. Espic, M. Battaglia, R. Schanda, M. Leuenberger, S. Szidat

1 COMPARISON OF ATMOSPHERIC CO, CO2 AND CH4 MEASUREMENTS AT SCHNEEFERNERHAUS AND THE MOUNTAIN RIDGE AT ZUGSPITZE A. Hoheisel, C. Couret, M. Schmidt

1 HISTORICAL SNOW COVER AND WINTER TEMPERATURE EVOLUTION IN AUSTRIA OVER THE PERIOD 1950-2019 Roland Koch, Marc Olefs, Wolfgang Schöner

1 45 YEARS OF ATMOSPHERIC IN-SITU OBSERVATIONS AT JUNGFRAUJOCH Martin Steinbacher, Christoph Hueglin, Stefan Reimann, Dominik Brunner, Brigitte Buchmann, Lukas Emmenegger

1 STRATOSPHERIC INTRUSIONS AT JUNGFRAUJOCH Martin Steinbacher, Martin K. Vollmer, Franz Conen, Stefan Reimann

2 UNDERSTANDING GROUNDWATER CONNECTIVITY AND STORAGE IN ALPINE GLACIATED CATCHMENTS – THE CASE OF THE OTEMMA GLACIER Tom Müller, Bettina Schaefli, Stuart Lane

3 SEASONAL SNOW AGES WATER FROM ALPINE CATCHMENTS IN UNEXPECTED WAYS Natalie Ceperley, Giulia Zuecco, Harsh Beria, Anthony Michelon, Bettina Schaefli

3 MONITORING SNOW MELTING FROM SATELLITE Carlo Marin

5 FROM DATA TO KNOWLEDGE – A STREAM PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE FOR THE ALPENDAC PLATFORM TO TRIGGER COMPUTING AND MEASUREMENT OPERATIONS J. Munke, A. Götz, H. Heller, S. Hachinger, D. Laux, O. Goussev, J. Handschuh, S.Wüst, M. Bittner, R. Mair, B. Wittmann, T. Rehm, I. Beck, M. Neumann

5 GEO GNOME – GLOBAL NETWORK FOR OBSERVATIONS AND INFORMATION IN MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENTS Carolina Adler, Aino Kulonen

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5 PREPARATION OF THE ESA FORUM (EARTH-EXPLORER-9) MISSION: VALIDATION OF THE FIRMOS PROTOTYPE BY E-AERI AND LIDAR AT THE ZUGSPITZE R. Sussmann, H. Vogelmann, M. Rettinger, C. Belotti, M. Gai, G. Di Natale, L. Palchetti

15:00 End of Poster Session & Coffee break

15:30 Session V: Improving the VAO Infrastructure Session Chair: Prof Dr Heinz Gäggeler

15:30 ALPENDAC – THE ALPINE ENVIRONMENTAL DATA ANALYSIS CENTRE D. Laux,O. Goussev, J. Handschuh, S.Wüst, M. Bittner, A. Götz, H. Heller, J. Munke, R. Mair, B. Wittmann, T. Rehm, I. Beck, M. Neumann

15:45 ALPCLIMNET: A NETWORK FOR CLIMATE PROTECTION IN THE ALPINE SPACE Elena Kalusche, Michael Bittner

16:00 IMPLEMENTING “OPERATING ON DEMAND” INFRASTRUCTURE - FIRST STEPS INTEGRATING FAIM AND GRIPS INSTRUMENTS Oleg Goussev, Patrick Hannawald

16:15 INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE GLACIOLOGICAL MONITORING AT PASTERZE AND THE GLACIERS AROUND MT. SONNBLICK Marion Greilinger, Daniel Binder, Lucia Felbauer, Bernhard Hynek, Anton Neureiter, Stefan Reisenhofer, Wolfgang Schöner, Gernot Weyss

16:30 FRACTIONATION FOR OXYGEN AT GAS INTAKE LINE Markus C. Leuenberger, Michael F. Schibig , Peter Nyfeler

16:45 FLASK SAMPLING PROGRAM AT JUNGFRAUJOCH Michael F. Schibig, Markus Leuenberger, Peter Nyfeler

17:00 HARMONIZING ACCESS AND PROCESSING OF EO DATA: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE H2020 OPENEO PROJECT Alexander Jacob

17:15 End of Session V

19:30 Conference Dinner

Thursday 6 February 2020

09:00 Session IV: Environment and human health Session Chair: PD Dr Emrush Rexhaj

09:00 Key Note: Prof Dr Urs Baltensperger, Paul Scherrer Institute 09:30 ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION AND ALTITUDE

Franz Messerli

09:45 PULMONARY ARTERIAL PRESSURE AT REST AND DURING EXERCISE IN CHRONIC MOUNTAIN SICKNESS Rodrigo Soria

10:00 CHILDREN AND HIGH ALTITUDE Inselspital (NN)

10:15 ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY DEPOSITION AND ACCUMULATION IN ALPINE ECOSYSTEMS Mirjam Dietrich, Gabriela Ratz, Matthias Mauder, Till Rehm, Wolfgang Moche, Monika Denner, Jürgen Diemer, Karl-Friedrich Wetzel, Korbinian P. Freier

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10:30 Coffee break

11:00 Session IV: Environment and human health (cont’d) Session Chair: PD Dr Emrush Rexhaj

11:00 WHY COSMIC RAY MONITORING AT HIGH ALTITUDE? Rolf Bütikofer

11:15 IMPACT OF DESERT DUST CONTRIBUTIONS TO PM10 LIMIT VALUE EXCEEDANCE IN STYRIA (SOUTHERN AUSTRIA) FROM 2013-2018 Marion Greilinger, Johannes Zbiral, Anne Kasper-Giebl

11:30 INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS ON SECONDARY COSMIC RAY NEUTRON FLUX AT THE TWO HIGH-ALTITUDE RESEARCH STATIONS JUNGFRAUJOCH AND ZUGSPITZE Thomas Brall, Vladimir Mares, Werner Rühm, Rolf Bütikofer

11:45 AIRBORNE POLLEN AND FUNGAL SPORES WHERE AEROALLERGENS SHOULD NOT EXIST: WHERE IS IT SAFE FOR ALLERGIC PATIENTS? Maria P. Plaza, Daniela Bayr, Franziska Kolek, Vivien Leier-Wirtz, Stefanie Gilles, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Athanasios Damialis

12:00 TOWARDS A BIOCLIMATIC INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE ALPS Thilo Erbertseder, Lisa Mittelstädt, Lorenza Gilardi, Oleg Goussev, Stephan Hachinger, Claudia-Traidl Hoffman, Michael Bittner

12:15 LONG TERM ANALYSIS OF AN AGGREGATE HEALTH RISK DUE TO THE EXPOSURE TO AIR POLLUTION ON A BROAD AREA COVERAGE Lorenza Gilardi, T. Erbertseder, L. Mittelstädt, F. Baier, M. Bittner

12:30 CITIZEN SCIENCE – RESEARCH INTERFACE BETWEEN ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH? Gertrud Hammel, , Katharina Harter, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann

12:45 End of Session IV and Lunch

13:15 Lunch / Poster Session

14:00 Splinter Meetings

AlpEnDAC – Workshop (please bring your own laptop)

(…)

15:30 End of symposium

16:00 -17:00 Closed Side-meeting VAO Board (Room S357)

T O P I C 1

Atmospheric and climatic variability

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

THE JOSEFINA PROJECT: MONITORING AND SIMULATION OF URBAN POLLUTION PLUMES

Frank Baier, Ehsan Khorsandi, Thilo Erbertseder

German Aerospace Center, German Remote Sensing Data Center

frank.baier@dlr.de

ABSTRACT The influence of urban area pollution on the rural background is an important research topic. An increasing part of the general population lives near big city centers and are thereby suffering from increased health risk due to poor air quality. The Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection supports land-wide monitoring of air quality by Joint Bavarian - Slovenian Endeavor For Innovative Air Quality Analysis project JOSEFINA. By developing a platform for the integration of different observation systems and chemical modelling, better coverage and improved understanding of land-wide air pollution should be reached. This paper discusses main project results by addressing the effect of urban plumes on rural and semi-rural air pollution during July 2018 near Munich. The environmental data used is based on Sentinel S5p TropOmi NO2 satellite observations, ozone and NO2 in-situ station records of the regional authorities for environment (LfU) and respective simulation results from the Polyphemus/DLR mesoscale chemical-dispersion model. We use the Weather Research and Forecast WRF model for analysis of weather conditions and as driver for the dispersion model. We show that urban emissions impact the semi-rural environment in a complex way by combined chemical processing, up-lifting and advection in and near the boundary layer. This chain of effects is strongly linked to prevailing weather conditions and surface characteristics influencing near-surface wind fields. We compare model results to observations for the biggest Bavarian cities and discuss potential issues and errors related to both modelling and observation systems.

Figure: Simulation of the development of an urban ozone plume near the PBL. The colour map shows the ozone concentrations above the semi-rural background station DEBY 089. The additionally plotted lines show the PBL height and the differential wind speed between 150 m and 50 m altitude.

Ozone [ug/³]

Alti

tude

/m

July 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

Munich Johanneskirchen

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

A NEW INSTRUMENT FOR CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF ICE NUCLEATING PARTICLES

Cyril Brunner and Zamin A. Kanji

Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland

cyril.brunner@env.ethz.ch

ABSTRACT The evolution of precipitation, the physical and optical properties of a cloud is a strong function of the hydrometeor phase. One pathway to form ice crystals in the troposphere is via ice nucleating particles (INPs) which make up only a tiny fraction of all tropospheric aerosols. For accurate precipitation forecasts and climate projections, the parametrization of cloud processes and information such as the concentrations of INPs are needed (DeMott et al., 2010; Phillips et al., 2013). Presently, no continuous online INP counter is available and the data acquisition still requires a human operator. To address this restriction, we are developing a fully automated online ice nucleation particle counter, through an adaptation of an existing custom-built instrument, the Horizontal Ice Nucleation Chamber (HINC, Lacher et al., 2017), called HINC-Auto. HINC has successfully been used to detect INP concentrations during numerous field campaigns since 2014. HINC-Auto will be collecting data at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch (JFJ, 3580 m a.s.l., 46°33’ N, 7°59’ E) by mid-2020 with the goal of publishing the data in near real-time on an open access website. We present results from the first campaign in August 2019 where HINC-Auto was run at the JFJ. Furthermore, we will discuss potential of the new device as wells as the difficulties faced.

Multidecadal trend analysis of aerosol properties at a global scale: characteristic of high altitude stations M. Collaud Coen, E. Andrews, B. Brem, H. Flentje, K. Sellegri, A. Marinoni, C. Couret, T. Arsov

In order to assess the global evolution of aerosol parameters potentially affecting climate change, a long-term trend analysis of aerosol optical properties was performed on at least. decadal time series of 52 stations including 13 stations (6 in Europe) at altitude higher than 1000 m. Currently, scattering and backscattering coefficients trends are mainly decreasing in Europe and North America and are not statistically significant (ss) in Asia, while polar stations exhibit a mix of increasing and decreasing trends. For single scattering albedo, 52% of all the sites exhibit ss positive trends - mostly in Asia, Eastern/Northern Europe and Arctic, 18.5% of sites exhibit ss negative trends - mostly in central Europe and central North America, while the remaining 30% of sites have no ss trends. High altitude stations trends exhibit special general features relative to low altitude sites: 1) there are more not ss trends of the scattering coefficient at high altitudes, 2) the absorption coefficient trends at high altitudes are all ss decreasing except for one site and 3) most of the high altitude stations exhibit ss positive single scattering albedo trends. These differences will be tentatively explained in the European context of the aerosol optical properties trends and of abatement policies.

Figure: the slopes of the present-day 10 years trends as a function of the altitude of the stations. The trends were calculated with the seasonal Man-Kendall method associated with the Sen’s slope.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS OF BLACK CARBON PARTICLE SCAVENGING IN CLOUDS AT THE HIGH-ALPINE SITE JUNGFRAUJOCH

Martin Gysel-Beer, Ghislain Motos, Joel C. Corbin*, Marco Zanatta, Urs Baltensperger,

Robin L. Modini, and Julia Schmale§

Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland *now at: Metrology Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, 1200 Montreal

Road, Ottawa K1A 0R6, Canada §now at: Extreme Environments Research Laboratory, EPFL, 1951 Sion, Switzerland

martin.gysel@psi.ch

ABSTRACT

Black carbon (BC) is a main component of carbonaceous particulate matter mainly emitted by anthropogenic combustion sources, and it is the strongest light-absorber across the full visible range, therefore causing substantial climate warming through aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI). Freshly emitted BC is often externally mixed, which makes it a poor cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) due to its insolubility. BC particles can acquire water-soluble coatings during atmospheric aging, thereby making them better CCN. This affects the ARI of BC, as increasing its wet removal efficiency reduces total atmospheric BC burden.

In this study, we address the activation of BC to form droplets in ambient clouds. Field experiments were conducted at the high-alpine Jungfraujoch research site. Aerosol was sampled during cloud periods using different inlets in order to compare the properties of black carbon particles that activated to cloud droplets with those remaining interstitial.

It was found that black carbon scavenging into cloud droplets is mainly driven by cloud peak supersaturation (Figure 1), i.e. cloud dynamics. It could further be shown that the activation of BC particles to cloud droplets on single particle level can be predicted using simplified κ-Köhler theory constrained with BC core diameter and total particle both measured by a single particle soot photometer (SP2). The implications of these results on the treatment of BC scavenging in global model simulations will be discussed.

Figure 1: Scavenged fraction of black carbon (by mass) as a function of cloud peak supersaturation.

INFLUENCE OF ATMOSPHERIC WINDS ON THE PROPAGATION DIRECTION OF GRAVITY WAVES

Patrick Hannawald (1, 2), Sabine Wüst (1), Michael Bittner (1, 2), Friederike Lilienthal (3), Christoph Jacobi (3)

(1): German Remote Sensing Data Center, German Aerospace Center, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

(2): Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany (3) Institute for Meteorology, University of Leipzig, Germany

patrick.hannawald@dlr.de

ABSTRACT Atmospheric gravity waves transport energy and momentum trough the different atmospheric layers from the troposphere up to the mesosphere and above. On the one hand this transport has influence on atmospheric circulation patterns and drives for example the meridional circulation in the mesosphere. On the other hand the prevailing wind field selectively influences the vertical propagation conditions of gravity waves of different phase speed and horizontal propagation direction. The OH-airglow layer at ca. 86 km altitude (upper mesosphere / lower thermosphere, UMLT) is well-suited for the investigation of atmospheric dynamics, allowing continuous observations of the night-sky throughout the year. Especially, atmospheric gravity waves are prominent features in the data of airglow imaging systems. Furthermore, this altitude region is known to be a region where wave breaking occurs quite often making it particular interesting for quantifying the amount of energy and momentum released due to gravity waves. Five years of airglow observations with three FAIM camera systems in and around the Alpine region in the UMLT region allow deriving the main gravity wave propagation directions, the occurrence density of the waves, the observed phase speed and period, and the horizontal wavelength at different locations. These parameters are examined on seasonal as well as diurnal time scales. Comparisons with wind fields in the stratosphere and mesosphere show patterns with high correlation. We further present a case study of a stereoscopic reconstruction using two synchronized airglow-imagers with overlapping field-of-views. This allows deriving the wave amplitude and a 3D visualization of gravity wave patterns within the airglow layer. This work received funding from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection.

Figure 1 A short sequence of images of the OH airglow observations. Several gravity wave structures can be seen as well as a small superposed wave structure propagating in northeast direction.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

SIMULATING ATMOSPHERIC TRACER TRANSPORT TOWARDS AND CONCENTRATIONS AT THE HIGH ALTITUDE OBSERVATORY

JUNGFRAUJOCH

Stephan Henne, Dominik Brunner, Martin K. Vollmer, Martin Steinbacher, Stefan Reimann, Lukas Emmenegger

Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf,

Switzerland

stephan.henne@empa.ch

ABSTRACT Although high altitude observatories offer a unique opportunity for continuous sampling of the atmospheric composition in the lower free troposphere, their locations in topographically complex environments pose considerable challenges when combining their observations with quantitative models of atmospheric tracer transport. The spatial resolution and physical parameterizations of the latter are often not sufficient or adequate to cover tracer transport with the required details. However, large progress in model resolution was achieved over the last two decades with operational meteorological simulations now being carried out at kilometer-scale for the Alpine area (e.g., MeteoSwiss COSMO-1 at approximately 1 km x 1 km horizontal resolution). Here, we present air mass history and trace gas simulations for the high altitude site Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, applying the Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model (LPDM) FLEXPART driven by various meteorological analysis products from different meteorological centers and with different spatial resolution. On the one hand, the model was used to obtain information on the history of the sampled air masses, thereby calculating regional-scale concentration footprints. The latter were used for a categorization of flow regimes (footprint clustering), offering a more objective way for data filtering and screening (e.g. free troposphere vs. regionally influenced). On the other hand, quantitative tracer simulations were carried out for long-lived greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and synthetic gases) and compared to the observations. The latter allowing identifying gaps and weaknesses in the transport model and underlying emission inventory. Finally, observations and simulations were used in inverse modelling of greenhouse gas emissions. We display several examples that demonstrate the value of high-altitude observations and we discuss the effect of model versions (ECMWF IFS vs. MeteoSwiss COSMO) and resolution (COSMO 7 km vs. COSMO 1 km) on our results. The need for adequate atmospheric transport simulations to unleash the information content of high altitude observations is highlighted. Abstract submitted for an oral presentation for topic I with a focus on trace gases.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

RACLETS CAMPAIGN: A QUEST FOR THE ORIGIN OF ICE CRYSTALS IN ALPINE CLOUDS

Jan Henneberger (1), Alexander Beck (1), Zane Dedekind (1), Annika Lauber (1), Julie

Pasquier (1), Fabiola Ramelli (1), Michael Rösch (1), Jörg Wieder (1), Zamin Kanji (1), Ulrike Lohmann (1), Claudia Mignani (2), Michael Lehning (3,4), Benjamin Walter (4),

Alexis Berne (5), Athanasios Nenes (6), Aikaterini Bougiatioti (7), Johannes Bühl (8), Ronny Engelmann (8), Maxime Hervo (9), and Yves-Alain Roulet (9)

(1) Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

(jan.henneberger@env.ethz.ch), (2) Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, Switzerland, (3) Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, CRYOS, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland,

(4) WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF Davos, Davos Dorf, Switzerland, (5) Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory LTE, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, (6)

Laboratory of Atmospheric Processes and their Impacts LAPI, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, (7) IERSD, National Observatory of Athens, Palea Penteli, Greece, (8) Leibniz Institute for

Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany, (9) Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Payerne, Switzerland

ABSTRACT

Precipitation forecasts in alpine regions are important for winter tourism, hydropower and hazard assessment, but current numerical weather models do not adequately represent the ice phase, in particular in the Alpine region. The “Role of Aerosols and Clouds Enhanced by Topography on Snow (RACLETS)” campaign uniquely combined cloud and snow research to improve the understanding of precipitation formation in clouds and snow deposition on the ground. During the RACLETS field campaign (February/March 2019) an extensive set of instruments was deployed in the Davos region in Switzerland including aerosol, cloud, precipitation and snow measurements. The goal of the RACLETS campaign was to observe the complete life cycle of ice crystals in so-called mixed-phase clouds (MPC) that consists of supercooled cloud droplets and ice crystals. The cloud condensation and ice nucleation ability of aerosol particles was measured in a valley and on a mountaintop site. The growth of ice crystals to snowflakes was observed using two holographic imagers, which were installed on a cable car and on a tethered balloon system and obtained vertical profiles of cloud droplet and ice crystal number concentrations. In addition, multiple remote sensing instruments (Raman Lidar, Doppler Lidar, Cloud Radar, Wind profiler, Microwave Radiometer, Ceilometer) probed the atmosphere up to higher altitudes. The precipitation and the resulting snow deposition were measured at various sites on the surface. The measurements are contextualized by using regional numerical weather models with secondary ice production schemes for the atmosphere and high-resolution models for the snow deposition. The unique dataset obtained during the RACLETS field campaign is being used to improve the understanding of precipitation formation and snow deposition by addressing the following questions:

• Can we distinguish in-cloud ice enhancement processes from external ones and quantify their contributions to orographic precipitation?

• How does the spatial distribution of cloud droplets and ice crystals influence the precipitation formation processes MPCs?

• Do anthropogenic aerosols noticeably change the microphysical and optical properties of MPCs and influence orographic precipitation?

The dataset of orographic clouds and precipitation created by this joint research project is in the process to be published on https://www.envidat.ch/group/about/raclets-field-campaign.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies at Mount Zugspitze in Relation to North-Atlantic-European Atmospheric Circulation and Teleconnection Patterns

Jucundus Jacobeit and Markus Homann

Institute of Geography, University of Augsburg

Based on daily temperature and precipitation time series 1950-2015 for Mount Zugspitze,

anomalous months with respect to both variables are selected in terms of (positive and

negative) differences of more than one standard deviation from the long-term monthly

mean values. The re-analysis grids of 500 hPa geopotential heights in the North-Atlantic-

European region are submitted to T-mode PCA in order to derive basic circulation patterns

linked to these high-mountain climate anomalies. Results include the preference for warm or

cold and dry or wet anomalies of these circulation patterns as well as internal changes within

these patterns affecting their links to climate anomalies. Furthermore, large-scale

teleconnection patterns (derived by S-mode PCA) being important for the North-Atlantic-

European region like NAO, East Atlantic (EA), East Atlantic West Russia (EAWR) and

Scandinavian patterns are analyzed with respect to temperature and precipitation signals at

Mount Zugspitze: frequency and amount of positive or negative deviations are recorded for

months with distinct phases of these teleconnection patterns (time coefficients differing

more than one standard deviation from CPC mean values). The attached figure gives an

example referring to the EAWR pattern being especially important for climate anomalies at

Mount Zugspitze.

Frequency of pos. and neg. deviations from the 1950-2015 mean in monthly temperature and precipitation at Mount Zugspitze for EAWR during the meteorological seasons. + and – refer to time coefficients of more than one standard deviation above or below

the long-term mean value. 2x2 sub-tables providing a significant two-tailed 2-test are highlighted (solid for 99%, dashed for 95% levels).

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

CHANGE OF THE ACITIVITY OF PLANETARY WAVES: POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE OZONE DISTRIBUTION

Lisa Küchelbacher1, Michael Bittner1, 2

1 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Earth Observation Center, Deutsches Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum

2 Universität Augsburg, Institut für Physik, Professur für Atmosphärenfernerkundung

Lisa.kuechelbacher@dlr.de

ABSTRACT

Planetary waves (PW) are global scale waves that characterize the circulation in the mid-latitudes not only in the troposphere, but also in the stratosphere. As PW are mainly horizontal transversal waves, they lead to disturbances of the circumpolar wind and therewith dominate the large scale mass transport of ozone in the stratosphere. Due to breaking of PW, ozone poor air masses are irreversibly mixed into the mid-latitudes circulation. Due to the disproportionate warming of the North Pole, an increase in PW activity (PWA) is expected. This should in turn have also consequences for ozone streamer events in the future. To quantify changes in PWA, we used the global ERA reanalysis temperature data. In order to quantify modulations of the PWA, we used the method of empirical mode decomposition (EMD). To identify regions with high instability in the stratosphere, we modeled the meridional wind shear with the height due to the sole influence of the PW using the thermal wind shear equation. With this simple model, we can estimate to which extent the effects of PWA on ozone streamer events might change in the future. We find significant overall increases of the PWA in the stratosphere. Besides this, as PW are found to be modulated by internal (QBO, ENSO) and external (sun) cycles we quantified their contributions. Moreover, the largest impact of the PWA is found to be located at the transition zones from ocean to continent; strongest from North Atlantic to Europe. There, the probability of ozone streamer events is highest. Due to the change of the PWA, ozone streamer events are likely to occur more often in the future and with also higher intensity. This might have various consequences for Europe and the Alpine region, as for example in the UV radiance.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

FIRST HINTS FOR THE INFLUENCE OF PLANETARY WAVES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF MIDLATITUDE EXTREME TEMPERATURE EVENTS

Dominik Laux1, Lisa Küchelbacher2, Michael Bittner1,2

1 University of Augsburg, Institute of Physics, Augsburg, Germany

2 German Aerospace Center (DLR), Earth Observation Center, Weßling, Germany

dominik.laux@dlr.de

ABSTRACT Planetary waves are global scale waves in the atmosphere, which mainly dominate the atmospheric circulation in mid latitudes. It is discussed whether planetary wave activity increases due to the decrease of the meridional temperature gradient between the equator and the pole. As a result, large-scale weather patterns in mid latitudes should change, leading to a change in the occurrence of extreme weather events. In order to analyze whether the occurrence of extreme temperature events has already changed, an algorithm was developed that identifies extreme temperature events in ERA reanalysis temperature data from 1979 to 2019 in different height levels (1000hPa – 1hPa). To relate changes in the occurrence of extreme temperature events to possible changes of the planetary wave activity, we use the so-called dynamic activity index (DAI), which is operationally derived from ERA reanalysis temperature data at DLR. In the troposphere, our analyses show that the occurrence frequency of heat events increases whereas the opposite holds for cold events. This is consistent with the expected effect of increasing average temperatures on the occurrence frequency of extreme temperature events. In the stratosphere, however, we observe an increase of cold events and a constant number of heat events. We conclude that tropospheric and stratospheric driving factors for the occurrence of extreme temperature events differ. The stratospheric development can be explained by increasing planetary wave activity as it is deduced from the DAI.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

RECENT SCIENTIFIC INSIGHTS FROM THE LONG-TERM COMPREHENSIVE OBSERVATIONS IN HIGH ALPINE ENVIRONMENTS

Tuukka Petäjä1,2, Mikko Sipilä1,2, Tuija Jokinen1, Federico Bianchi1, Heikki Junninen1,3, Jenni

Kontkanen1, Katrianne Lehtipalo1, Markku Kulmala1 and Urs Baltensperger4

1Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Reseach (INAR) / Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Finland

2Värriö Research Station, University of Helsinki, Finland 3University of Tartu, Estonia

4Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland

Contact author: tuukka.petaja@helsinki.fi

ABSTRACT

The Earth’s environment is under an extreme pressure due to global grand challenges, such as climate change and poor air quality (Kulmala et al. 2016). Particularly the vulnerable areas, such as the Arctic and the Himalayan and high alpine environments will be in a fragile position in the future. In order to respond to and tackle these challenges, we need have a multidisciplinary scientific approach, which needs to be supported by strong and comprehensive environmental observation capacity in connection with fast-track policy making. In this work we will summarize the recent scientific findings that rely on high-quality, comprehensive observations performed at a suite of well-established high Alpine stations. We concentrate the analysis on two different European sites, namely Värriö in Eastern Lapland, and Jungfraujoch in Switzerland (Bianchi et al. 2016) and we supplement this with targeted observations at the Pyramid Station in the Himalayas. In all three locations, we have deployed a suite of Chemical Ionization Atmospheric Pressure interface Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometers (CI-APiTOF, Jokinen et al. 2012), which have resolved both the chemical identity and concentrations of precursor vapors required to drive the clustering and formation of new aerosol particles. The chemical measurements are complemented with state-of-the-art aerosol size distribution and concentration measurements (Kontkanen et al. 2017) to provide the physical characterization of the aerosol population. References: Bianchi, F., Tröstl, J., Junninen, H., Frege, C., Henne, S., Hoyle, C.R., Molteni, U., Herrmann, E., Adamov, A., Bukowiecki, N., Chen, X., Duplissy, J., Gysel, M., Hutterli, M., Kangasluoma, J., Kontkanen, J., Kürten, A., Manninen, H.E., Münch, S., Peräkylä, O., Petäjä, T., Rondo, L., Williamson, C., Weingartner, E., Curtius, J., Worsnop, D., Kulmala, M., Dommen, J. and Baltensperger, U. (2016) New particle formation in the free troposphere: a question of chemistry and timing, Science, 352, 1109-1112. Jokinen, T., Sipilä, M., Junninen, H., Ehn, M., Lönn, G., Hakala, J., Petäjä, T., Mauldin III, R.L., Kulmala, M. and Worsnop, D.R. (2012) Atmospheric sulfuric acid and neutral cluster measurements using CI-APi-TOF, Atmos. Chem. Phys. 12, 4117-4125. Kontkanen, J., Lehtipalo, K., Ahonen, L., Kangasluoma, J., Manninen, H.E., Hakala, J., Rose, C., Sellegri, K., Xiao, S., Wang, L., Qi, X., Nie, W., Ding, A.J., Yu, H., Lee, S.H., Kerminen, V.-M., Petäjä, T. and Kulmala, M. (2017) Measurements of sub-3nm particles using a particle size magnifier in different environments: from clean mountain top to polluted megacities, Atmos. Chem. Phys. 17, 2163-2187. Kulmala, M., Lappalainen, H.K., Petäjä, T., Kerminen, V.-M., Viisanen, Y., Matvienko, G., Melnikov, V., Baklanov, A., Bondur, V., Kasimov, N. and Zilitinkevich, S. (2016) Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) program: grand challenges in the Arctic-Boreal context, Geogr. Environ. Sust. 9, 5-18.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

CLIMATE SERVICES FOR THE ALPINE REGION: THE ROLE OF SEASONAL FORECAST FOR MANAGING CLIMATE INFORMATION

Marcelo Petitta1,2, Alice Crespi2, Mattia Callegari2, Felix Greifeneder2, Claudia

Notarnicola2, Marc Zebisch2 and Alberto Troccoli3.

1ENEA, SSPT-MET-CLIM, Roma, Italy 2EURAC, Institute for Earth Observations

3UEA/WEMC

Marcello.petitta@enea.it

ABSTRACT Type of presentation requested: ORAL Topic: I. Atmospheric variability and trends In recent years, local stakeholders, political administrators and industrial actors have become increasingly interested in climate variability at the local scale. This interest is adding pressure to the need to present climatological data in a more trustworthy way, and as certified and credible information which can be understood and managed not only by the scientific community, but also by a broader audience such as institutional players and private companies. Several European research projects and the Copernicus initiative is providing strong support to develop the so called climate services, in which the process of transforming the climate data in an operative information is provided and designed with the final users’ needs as a target. In these climate service projects, the involvement of the final user is often strong and they work with the scientific community to build a reliable and tailored climate service. Thus, the climate service become a place in which, starting from the climate data, from vulnerability studies, from risk assessments and from users needs, the meteorological variables are transformed in quantitative indicators and transparent information which can be practically used to take decisions. Here, we present the activities related to the H2020 European project SECLI-FIRM on the use of seasonal forecast to provide relevant information on the energy production, management and assessment. The process from the initial data to the energy indicator required for management decisions, through the downscaling approach, the calibration and the bias correction will be illustrated using practical examples. The skill and the accuracy of the current seasonal forecast will be analysed in the form of different and aggregated variables. The results obtained comparing the anomaly-based downscaling with a bilinear one show that the first approach presents very low biases compared to the reference dataset (ERA5). The following figures show the preliminary results of the two approaches for the temperature field.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

NINE YEARS OF CONTINUOUS CO2 AND δ13C STABLE ISOTOPE RATIO MEASUREMENTS AT JUNGFRAUJOCH INTERPRETED WITH

ATMOSPHERIC TRANSPORT SIMULATIONS

Simone M. Pieber1, Béla Tuzson1, Stephan Henne1, Ute Karstens2, Dominik Brunner1, Armin Jordan3, Heiko Moossen3, Michael Rothe3, Martin Steinbacher1 & Lukas Emmenegger1

1 Empa, Laboratory for Air Pollution and Environmental Technology, Switzerland

2 ICOS Carbon Portal, Lund University, Sweden 3 Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany

simone.pieber@empa.ch

ABSTRACT

Long-term monitoring of greenhouse gases provides essential information on their variability and rate of change in the atmosphere. When combined with atmospheric transport modelling, the measurements allow identifying and quantifying regional contributions to source and sink processes. Measurements of stable isotope ratios provide further constraints on source-sink processes [1-3].

Here, we present a unique data set of continuous measurements and receptor-oriented model simulations for carbon dioxide concentrations (CO2) and δ13C stable isotope ratios for a nine year period (2009-2017) at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch (Switzerland, 3580 m asl). Atmospheric CO2 and δ13C measurements were performed with two different techniques. Continuous and highly time-resolved in-situ data were obtained using a quantum cascade laser absorption spectrometer [3-5] and bi-weekly collected discrete air samples were analyzed off-line with flame ionization detection and standard isotope ratio mass spectrometry [6]. Receptor-oriented model simulations of CO2 were performed on a 3-hourly time-resolution with two backward Lagrangian particle dispersion models driven by two different numerical weather forecast fields: FLEXPART-COSMO and STILT-ECMWF. Anthropogenic CO2 fluxes were based on the EDGAR v4.3 emissions inventory aggregated into 14 source categories representing fossil and biogenic fuel uses as well as emissions from cement production. Biospheric CO2 fluxes representing the vegetation photosynthetic uptake and respiration of 8 plant functional types were based on the Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (VPRM). The simulated CO2 emissions per source and sink category were weighted with category-specific δ13C signatures from published experimental studies. Background CO2 values at the boundaries of both model domains were taken from global model simulations and the δ13C constructed based thereof as suggested in Ref. [3].

We find that decadal and seasonal trends in CO2 and δ13C as derived from in-situ and off-line

measurements at the Jungfraujoch under unpolluted free troposphere conditions agree well with observations at other stations that monitor the unpolluted atmosphere (e.g., Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA). Further, our simulated atmospheric CO2 and δ13C time-series are in good agreement with the in-situ measurements and capture their intensity profile at the models' 3-hourly time-resolution. This allows for an in-depth evaluation of the contribution of different CO2 emission sources and regions to the polluted air masses from the planetary boundary layer, which influence Jungfraujoch. The receptor-oriented model simulations suggest that anthropogenic CO2 contributions are primarily of fossil origin (90%), and that the total CO2 emissions influencing the Jungfraujoch contain CO2 originating from biospheric respiration in a seasonally varying contribution of 40-80%. REFERENCES [1] Tuzson et al., 2011. ACP, 11, 1685–1696. [2] Röckmann et al., 2016. ACP, 16, 10469-10487 [3] Vardag et al., 2016. Biogeosciences, 13, 4237–4251. [4] Tuzson et al., 2008. Appl. Phys. B, 92, 451-458. [5] Sturm et al., 2013. AMT, 6, 1659-1671. [6] Werner et al., 2001. RCMS,15, 2152-2167.

AVHRR AOD uncertainty propagation Thomas Popp

DLR-DFD, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

thomas.popp@dlr.de

In the inversion of Essential Climate Variables from satellite-based observations uncertainties of all input data and assumptions propagate through the different levels of processing, starting from level1 (calibrated reflectances per pixel) via level2 (retrieved geophysical parameters per pixel) to level3 (gridded daily and monthly averages of all pixels values within the grid cell). Thorough estimation of those uncertainties and rigid propagation through the processing levels are a challenging task. In the EU Horizon2020 project “Fidelity and uncertainty in climate data records from Earth Observations” (FIDUCEO) uncertainty propagation through different processing levels was elaborated further. This started from characterizing in more detail the uncertainties of the input measured reflectances with independent (random, uncorrelated), structured (correlated with spatial / temporal range) and common (globally correlated) elements. In addition, assumptions (e.g. model-based aerosol type climatology) and auxiliary information (surface brightness estimated from a vegetation index and a mid-infrared channel) used in the retrieval inversion were also analysed in terms of their uncertainties and correlation structures. Based on this analysis, consistent propagation of uncertainties to the gridded daily and monthly level3 products could then be demonstrated by separately propagating elements with different correlation structures. This methodology was demonstrated for a very simple example for Aerosol Optical Depth inversion from AVHRR over land. A ten-year AOD record over Europe was processed together with its consistently propagated uncertainties on all levels. The ten-year AOD time series average over Europe and its uncertainties were validated and compared to a multi-mission merged AOD time series.

Fig. 1: Regional AOD time series Europe (30°-75° North, 10° West - 57° East) from multi-mission merged dataset (Sogacheva, et al., ACPD, 2019) and from NOAA-16/18 AVHRR (this abstract)

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

10 YEARS OF MESOPAUSE TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH STATION “SCHNEEFERNERHAUS”

Carsten Schmidt1, Lisa Küchelbacher1, Patrick Hannawald1,2, Sabine Wüst1 and Michael1,2

Bittner

1German Aerospace Center, DLR-DFD, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany 2University of Augsburg, Germany

Carsten.schmidt@dlr.de

ABSTRACT

A faint luminance, the so-called airglow, originates from several thin layers within the Earth’s upper atmosphere between approximately 80 km to 100 km. Each of these layers is formed by a certain chemical species with individual emission characteristics. The dominant emissions are caused by rotational-vibrational transitions of the hydroxyl (OH) molecule, which are most intense in the near infrared region and allow for the calculation of the molecules’ rotational temperatures – providing a good proxy for the actual thermodynamic temperatures at these heights. Mountain ridges like the Alps play a key role in the generation of atmospheric gravity waves which in turn influence the global so-called residual circulation in mesospheric heights. Therefore, airglow observations performed around the Alps and aimed at both the long-term evolution of mesospheric temperatures and gravity wave dynamics above the Alps can provide key insights into this sensitive atmospheric region. Since 2009 routine observations of the OH airglow temperatures are performed with the infrared spectrometer GRIPS (Ground-based Infrared P-branch Spectrometer) at Oberpfaffenhofen (OPN, 48.09°N, 11.28°E) and at the Environmental Research Station “Schneefernerhaus” (UFS, 47.42°N, 10.98°E). In order to better understand gravity wave dynamics above the Alps the observing capacities were extended by setting up further instruments at the Sonnblick Observatory in Austria (SBO, 47.05°N, 12.96°E) in 2015 and at Otlica Observatory in Slovenia (OTL, 45.93°N, 13.91°E) in 2017 in the frame of the Virtual Alpine Observatory (VAO). Due to an elaborate observation scheme utilizing two individual instruments at any time and a sophisticated retrieval, the UFS time series provides a completeness of 80%, an unsurpassed value for a Mid-latitude station, although the optical observations are often impeded by cloud coverage. The presentation discusses the long-term evolution of these mesospheric temperatures above the Alps, the preliminary 10-year climatology and significant features apparent in the time series, such as a distinct correlation with the F10.7 index of the sun. However, more remarkable is the fact that the mesospheric seasons appear to be closer related to the astronomical seasons (e.g.: winter = Nov-Dec-Jan) than the tropospheric meteorological seasons (winter = Dec-Jan-Feb), although the underlying residual circulation is caused by gravity waves, generated in the troposphere and thus tropospheric weather systems. In summer the lowest temperatures are on average even reached one to three weeks before the summer solstice.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Figure: 10 year evolution of Mesosphere-Lower-Thermosphere (MLT) temperatures above the Environmental Research Station “Schneefernerhaus” (UFS). Observations performed with the three instruments GRIPS 5, 7 and 8 (black) achieve a completeness of 80%, gaps have been filled with climatological means (blue). Once the strong seasonal cycle is removed, small features are recognizable in the long-term temperature evolution (red).

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

OBSERVATORY MILEŠOVKA: OVERVIEW OF CLOUD, PRECIPITATION AND AEROSOL RESEARCH

Pavel Sedlák

Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

sedlak@ufa.cas.cz

ABSTRACT

The Milešovka observatory is situated on the top of the conical Milešovka mountain (837 m a.s.l.; 50°33.3′N, 13°55.9′E), the highest top of the uplands České středohoří about 60 km NW of Prague. It is a professional meteorological and climatological observatory with continuous measurements since 1905. The location of the observatory is suitable for atmospheric research due to a large 360° view and an absence of high obstacles in the surroundings, which makes it a unique meteorological observatory in the Czech Republic. Milešovka observatory is operated by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, and controlled by meteorological observers with a 24/7 service. Besides standard instruments of a meteorological and climatological station, the equipment also includes Vaisala ceilometer CL51, Thies Laser Precipitation Monitor, and Ka-band vertically pointing cloud radar (profiler MIRA35c). In addition, a Doppler dual polarimetric X-band radar should be purchased in 2020. The observatory is currently equipped also with instruments measuring the atmospheric electric field (Boltek Electric Field Monitor EFM-100), the magnetic field (SLAVIA sensors, Shielded Loop Antenna with a Versatile Integrated Amplifier), and charged and neutral components of secondary cosmic rays (SEVAN) in order to investigate lightning in thunderstorms. The Ka-band Doppler polarimetric cloud radar (profiler MIRA35c) was installed at the station for detecting cloud particles in order to derive the distribution of hydrometeors in clouds. Two new functionalities that complement the provided software were introduced. First, the dealiasing algorithm was improved, and a method was applied for computing the vertical air velocity (Vair) and the terminal velocity of hydrometeors by using the Doppler spectra. Second, an algorithm was developed that identifies six hydrometeor types (cloud droplets, ice, and four precipitating particles: rain, graupel, snow, and hail) based on the calculated terminal velocity of hydrometeors, temperature, Vair, and Linear Depolarization Ratio. With high frequency of fog occurrence, Milešovka observatory is ideal for in-situ investigation of low-level clouds. Our colleagues from the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals arrange measurement campaigns there in autumns and springs. For this purpose, additional instrumentation is temporarily installed at the station, mainly two aerosol spectrometers, Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS 3080 with 3081 DMA TSI, USA and 3775 CPC, Condensation Particle Counter, TSI, USA), and Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS 3021, TSI, USA). Measurements in aged or long-lived stratus clouds are made, with the aim to describe the activation of atmospheric aerosol into cloud droplets, and to estimate the factors influencing the effectiveness, speed, and time and size dependence of the activation processes for different hydrometeors. First results will be presented at the symposium.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

Remote Sensing of the Upper Mesosphere / Lower Thermosphere (UMLT): Gravity Waves and a Short Glimpse on Infrasound (Projects VoCaS-ALP and WAVE)

René Sedlak1, Sabine Wüst2, Carsten Schmidt2, Alexandra Zuhr1,2,a, and Michael Bittner1,2

1University of Augsburg, Institute of Physics 2German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) anow at: Alfred-Wegener Institut, Potsdam, Germany

Correspondence to: René Sedlak (rene.sedlak@physik.uni-augsburg.de)

ABSTRACT Within the project VoCaS-ALP (“Vollständige Charakterisierung von Schwerewellen über dem ALPenraum”) multi-year temperature time series from OH-airglow infrared spectrometers deployed at different sites in Europe as part of the Network for the Detection of Mesospheric Change (NDMC) are used to estimate the gravity wave activity in the upper mesosphere / lower thermosphere (UMLT) region. The seasonal course of gravity wave activity is found to be strongly dependent on the wave period. While there is almost no clear variability of gravity wave activity for periods lower than about 60 minutes, we find strong evidence for an increasing variation throughout the year for periods longer than ca. 60 min. A dominant semi-annual structure with maxima at the solstices is found up to a periodicity of about 200 minutes, where a gradual transition to an annually shaped cycle with maximum activity during winter and minimum activity during summer is observed. In the last part of the talk, a short outlook is given concerning the project WAVE, which is focusing amongst others on infrasound in Alpine UMLT measurements.“ Both projects received funding from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

Figure 1. Long-term courses of monthly mean wavelet intensity in the period range between 6 and 480 min for different observation sites within the Alpine region (OPN: Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany; UFS: Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus, Germany; SBO: Sonnblick Observatory, Austria, OHP: Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France), polar regions (ALR: ALOMAR, Norway; NEU: Neumeyer III, Antarctic), the Mediterranean (TAV: Tel Aviv, Israel), and the Lesser Caucasus (ABA: Abastumani, Georgia).

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

VOLCANIC SIGNATURES IN THE 20 YEARS TIME SERIES OF ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS AT THE SCHNEEFERNERHAUS

W. Thomas, B. Briel, T. Elste, H. Flentje, R. Holla, F. Klein, U. Köhler, D. Kubistin, I. Mattis,

C. Plass-Dülmer

Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Meteorologisches Observatorium Hohenpeissenberg, Albin-Schwaiger-Weg 10, D-82383 Hohenpeissenberg

Werner.Thomas@dwd.de, Bjoern.Briel@dwd.de, Thomas.Elste@dwd.de,

Harald.Flentje@dwd.de, Robert.Holla@dwd.de, Felix.Klein@dwd.de, Ulf.Koehler@dwd.de, Dagmar.Kubistin@dwd.de, Ina.Mattis@dwd.de, Christian.Plass-Duelmer@dwd.de

ABSTRACT

Routine measurements of atmospheric constituents at the GAW Station Zugspitze/Hohenpeissenberg performed by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) comprise particle number concentration (since 2000), particle size distribution (since 2011) and sulphur dioxide ambient air concentrations (since 2000). From May 2010 onwards we further analyzed backscatter measurements from the CHM15KX ceilometer at the Schneefernerhaus (see Figure). Although the single wavelength measurements of the ceilometer may not give a conclusive answer for the presence of volcanic ash particles, the backscatter data supports the interpretation of in-situ measurements. An applicable marker for a remote station such as the Schneefernerhaus is a sulphur dioxide concentration above background levels together with an enhanced number of particles larger than three micrometers. An increased particle number concentration further substantiates the presence of volcanic emissions as well as enhanced backscatter signals of aerosol layers (i.e. volcanic ash) above the station. We analyzed all these measurements for signatures of volcanic emissions and we found several episodes of coinciding results, such as enhanced levels of sulphur dioxide and increased number of larger aerosol particles in the 20 years’ data record. We further used satellite products from the MSG/SEVIRI instrument and trajectory analyses for justifying the occurrence of volcanic emissions at the Schneefernerhaus.

Backscatter intensity measured at the Schneefernerhaus (SFH) on Dec 7th 2015. Enhanced signals are observed from 14:00 UTC onwards at about 4 km a.s.l. and later on at lower levels. Complementary in-situ measurements of sulphur dioxide confirm the presence of volcanic emissions.

• oral presentation preferred • selected topic: I. Atmospheric variability and trends

VARIABILITY OF THE BRUNT-VÄISÄLÄ FREQUENCY AT THE OH*-LAYER HEIGHT AT LOW AND MID LATITUDES

Sabine Wüst 1, Michael Bittner 1, 2, Jeng-Hwa Yee 3, Martin G. Mlynczak 4, James M. Russell

III 5

1 Deutsches Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

2 Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, 86159 Augsburg, Germany 3 Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland, USA

4 NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, USA 5 Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Hampton, USA

sabine.wuest@dlr.de

ABSTRACT

Atmospheric dynamics is strongly influenced by waves on different scales. Airflow over mountains can lead to all kinds of atmospheric waves, planetary and gravity waves as well as infrasound. Under certain circumstances these waves can propagate through the atmosphere and lead to a re-distribution of energy. In the case of gravity waves, a stably stratified atmosphere is a mandatory requirement for their generation and vertical propagation. One possibility to check the stability of the atmosphere is the calculation of the Brunt-Väisälä frequency. This can be done based on the potential or the kinetic temperature. In both cases, vertical profiles of the respective parameter are needed. The Brunt- Väisälä frequency is also the largest frequency a gravity wave can have. It plays an important role in the dispersion relation and is also needed for the quantification of the energy which is transported by gravity waves. Airglow spectrometers as they are operated within the Network for the Detection of Mesospheric Change (NDMC, https://ndmc.dlr.de), for example, allow the estimation of the kinetic temperature. However, airglow spectrometers do not deliver vertically-resolved temperature information. This is an obstacle for the calculation of the density of gravity wave potential energy from these measurements. Co-located measurements, e.g. from TIMED-SABER (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics Dynamics, Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) are needed. If co-located measurements are not available, a climatology of the Brunt-Väisälä frequency is an alternative (e.g., figure 1). Based on 17 years of TIMED-SABER temperature data (2002–2018) such a climatology is provided here for the OH* airglow layer height and for a latitudinal longitudinal grid of 10° × 20° at mid and low latitudes. Additionally, climatologies of height and thickness of the OH* airglow layer are calculated. This work received funding from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection.

Figure 1 Mean development of the Brunt-Väisälä frequency during the year derived from 17 years of TIMED-SABER measurements between 30°N and 40°N. The colors refer to the different longitudes.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

COMPLEX MONITORING OF THE ATMOSPHERE AT BEO MOUSSALA

Christo Angelov

Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72 Tsarigradsko Chaussee blvd., 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria

hangelov@inrne.bas.bg

ABSTRACT

The Basic Environmental Observatory (BEO) “Moussala” is situated at the highest peak on the Balkan Peninsula - Moussala (2925.4 m a.s.l., 42º10`44``N, 23º35`75``E) in Rila Mountain – the central part of the Bulgarian southern mountain area. Moussala Peak’s unique geographical location (the boundary of the lower troposphere) allows one, in addition to the traditional research related to cosmic rays, to conduct research related to global climate change, transboundary pollution transport, possible correlations of cosmic ray intensity with atmospheric parameters, etc. The mountain environment as a field for climate studies and recently for climate change has become a global issue. Inauguration of BEO was in 1999. In 2007 BEO became pan-European Research Infrastructure and from 2010 - Regional GAW station in the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme. The station is equipped with suitable contemporary devices for such measurements. The atmosphere monitoring program of BEO includes measurements of gas concentration of some greenhouse and trace gases as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, methane and water vapors. We use hand-held multi-band sun photometer for measuring the total ozone column. The other components for thermal balance in the atmosphere which we measure are aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei that can form into cloud droplets in the air. Continuous monitoring of natural radiation background has been carried out by IGS 421 gamma probe. In operation is high volume air aerosol-sampling system, followed by a gamma-ray spectrometer measurement with a high-purity germanium detector. Real time measurements of the radioactivity in the air are in operation using NaI scintillation gamma-detector. For precise monitoring of thermal balance in the atmosphere we put in operation pyranometer and pyrgeometer. On-line data and detailed information about BEO Moussala are available at: http://beo-db.inrne.bas.bg/moussala/.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

WATER VAPOUR TRENDS IN SWITZERLAND FROM RADIOMETRY, FTIR AND GNSS GROUND STATIONS

Leonie Bernet1,2, Elmar Brockmann3, Thomas von Clarmann4, Niklaus Kämpfer1,2, Emmanuel

Mahieu5, Christian Mätzler1,2, Gunter Stober1,2, and Klemens Hocke1,2

1Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 2Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

3Federal Office of Topography, swisstopo, Wabern, Switzerland 4Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

5Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

leonie.bernet@iap.unibe.ch

Water vapour in the atmosphere is not only a strong greenhouse gas, but also affects many atmospheric processes such as the formation of clouds and precipitation. With increasing temperature, Integrated Water Vapour (IWV) is expected to increase. Analysing how atmospheric water vapour changes in time is therefore important to monitor ongoing climate change. To determine whether IWV increases in Switzerland as expected, we asses IWV trends from a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer at Jungfraujoch, from a tropospheric water radiometer (TROWARA) in Bern and from the Swiss network of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations. In addition, trends are assessed from reanalyses data, using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA5) and the Modern-Era Retrospecitve Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2). We use a straightforward trend method to account for jumps in the GNSS data when instrumental changes were performed. Comparing GNSS and FTIR data at Jungfraujoch, we found a dry bias of the FTIR data of approximately 1mm due to the restriction of FTIR to clear-sky conditions. However, when coincident measurements are used, the data agree within their uncertainties. At Jungfraujoch, we found positive but insignificant IWV trends. For whole Switzerland, our data show mostly positive IWV trends between 2 and 5 % per decade. Generally, we found that IWV trends from GNSS data tend to be larger at higher altitudes. Further, we found that IWV scales on average to lower tropospheric temperature as expected, except in winter. Our results are generally consistent with the positive water vapour feedback in a warming climate and confirm the larger sensitivity to climate change at higher altitudes.

Monthly means of integrated water vapour (IWV) from the FTIR spectrometer (corrected for the sparse sampling) and the GNSS station at Jungfraujoch (Switzerland), using the full hourly GNSS sampling (orange) and data only at the same time as the FTIR measured (coincident GNSS, green). Since the FTIR measures under clear-sky conditions only, it shows a dry bias compared to GNSS of 1mm, whereas it agrees within 0.2mm when only coincident measurements are used.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

CLIMATE RELEVANT OPTICAL AND MICROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WILDFIRE PARTICULATE MATTER IN THE FREE TROPOSPHERE

Benjamin T. Brem, Günther Wehrle and Martin Gysel-Beer

Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute

benjamin.brem@psi.ch, guenther.wehrle@psi.ch, martin.gysel@psi.ch

ABSTRACT

Wildfires emit large amounts of primary particulate matter (PM) containing black carbon (BC) and

secondary PM precursors. Fractions of these emissions can be injected into the free troposphere where they can be transported over long distances and exhibit a stronger radiative forcing efficiency than at ground level due to increased radiation from the backscattering of lower level clouds and the longer residence time in the atmosphere. Large BC concentration in the free troposphere can also alter the vertical temperature profile, leading to a stratification of the atmosphere below with consequences for clouds and precipitation.

This work characterizes the optical and microphysical properties of wildfire plumes transported to the Jungfraujoch (JFJ) High Altitude Research Station (3571m a.s.l.). The optical properties evaluated include the total and backward scattering coefficients, the absorption coefficient and their derived Ångström exponents and the single scattering albedo. The microphysical properties evaluated consist of the particle size distribution, total particle concentration and the cloud condensation nuclei concentrations, measured by a scanning mobility particle sizer, a condensation particle counter and a cloud condensation nuclei counter, respectively.

In a preliminary analysis, four major wildfire events were tracked in the period between January 2015 and December 2019. The most significant plume originated from the Pedrógão Grande wildfire in Portugal and took place between June 19-25, 2017 (Figure). In this plume, total scattering and absorption coefficients reached levels greater than 50 and 7 Mm-1 at the green (550 nm) wavelength, respectively, which are in the range of 10 to 15 times the typical background levels for this time of year. An in-depth analysis of all plume properties and their impact on the radiation balance will be discussed in this poster presentation.

Figure: Scattering (a) and absorption (b) coefficients of the Pedrógão Grande wildfire plume, which was observed on the Jungfraujoch between June 19-25, 2017

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

SMALL-SCALE SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF AEROSOL PARAMETERS AROUND JUNGFRAUJOCH, SWITZERLAND (3580 M A.S.L.). PARALLEL AEROSOL

MEASUREMENTS AT AN ADJACENT MOUNTAIN RIDGE

Nicolas Bukowiecki 1,4, Benjamin Brem1, Maxime Hervo2, Martine Collaud Coen2, Stéphane Affolter3, Markus Leuenberger3, Günther Wehrle1, Urs Baltensperger1 and Martin Gysel1

1 Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

2 Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, Payerne, Switzerland 3 Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

4 Now at: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Nicolas.bukowiecki@unibas.ch, Benjamin.brem@psi.ch, maxime.hervo@meteoswiss.ch, martine.collaud@meteoswis.ch, stephane.affolter@unibas.ch,

leuenberger@climate.unibas.ch, guenther.wehrle@psi.ch, urs.baltensperger@psi.ch, martin.gysel@psi.ch

ABSTRACT

Many air pollution monitoring station/sites that were designed for long-term background measurements over several decades face the issue of increasing anthropogenic activities around the station, as well as the issue of the spatial representativeness of the site. This study presents a 4.5-year comparison of parallel aerosol measurements (total particle number concentration and equivalent black carbon mass concentration) at the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps (JFJ, 3580 m. a.s.l.) and an adjacent mountain ridge, Jungfrau East Ridge (JER, 3705 m a.s.l.), in 1000 m air distance to the main site. The parallel aerosol measurements reveal characteristic differences in the diurnal variations between the two sites under certain specific meteorological conditions. To statistically access these differences and to assess the influence of the spatial variation with respect to the long-term time series statistics, a day-by-day correlation analysis and a spike analysis was performed, followed by a cluster analysis to assess the influence of the spatial variation on the long-term time series statistics. Our analysis estimates that on 20-40% of the days local activities at the Jungfraujoch have a clear influence on the measured time series of the total aerosol number concentration and the equivalent black carbon mass concentration. This influence is mainly seen in form of strong isolated spikes rather than by an increase in the on-site background concentration, and can thus be flagged during the quality assurance process. Despite the partially drastic appearance of the local pollution spikes in the visual inspection of the time series, the quantitative concentration difference of both the particle number concentration and the equivalent black carbon mass concentration between JFJ and JER is on average very close to the unit-to-unit uncertainty and the instrumental noise, respectively. Figures 1 shows the monthly spike frequency for the total aerosol number concentration (Ntot) and the two sites. The monthly number of spikes show clear summertime maxima for JFJ, while the spikes detected at JER show no clear seasonality or temporal variation. In Ntot a decrease in the average number of daily spikes is observed from 2015 to 2018, possibly due to signs mounted on the tourist platform in March 2017 with the invitation to refrain from smoking.

Fig. 1: Monthly average values of the number of identified number of spikes per day at JFJ and JER, for the total particle number concentration (top panel). Additionally, the monthly average of the number of visitors per day is

indicated in arbitrary units.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

RADIOCARBON MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC METHANE

C. Espic1,2, M. Battaglia1,2, R. Schanda2,3, M. Leuenberger2,3, S. Szidat1,2

1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 2Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

3Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

christophe.espic@dcb.unibe.ch

ABSTRACT Methane contributes substantially to global warming as the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas. Radiocarbon (14C) measurements of atmospheric CH4 can be used to evaluate the proportion of fossil sources (e.g. natural gas, fossil-fuel combustion) and contemporary sources (e.g. agriculture, wetlands). We developed a new CH4 preconcentration and purification setup, which allows 14CH4 measurements of atmospheric air (Espic et al., 2019). We currently investigate three strategic sites in Switzerland: the Beromünster tall tower (rural area), the Jungfraujoch research station (continental background) and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in Bern (urban area). The comparison of the results from Beromünster and Jungfraujoch is of special importance, as it provides the potential of quantifying contributions of fossil and contemporary sources as well as 14CH4 emissions of nuclear power plants for the rural site. Such a comparison has been performed in a similar way for the quantification of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) using radiocarbon measurements (i.e. of 14CO2) since 2012 (Berhanu et al., 2017).

Fig. 1: Collection of air samples at Jungfraujoch. Picture: Ruedi Käser.

We are grateful to the funding of the Dr. Alfred Bretscher Scholarship. We further acknowledge that the International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat (HFSJG), 3012 Bern, Switzerland, made it possible for us to carry out our experiments at the High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch. T. Berhanu et al., 2017: Estimation of the fossil fuel component in atmospheric CO2 based on radiocarbon measurements at the Beromünster tall tower, Switzerland. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10753-10766, 2017, doi:10.5194/acp-17-10753-2017. C. Espic et al., 2019: Compound-specific radiocarbon analysis of atmospheric methane: a new preconcentration and purification setup. Radiocarbon, 61, 1461-1476, doi:10.1017/RDC.2019.76.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

COMPARISON OF ATMOSPHERIC CO, CO2 AND CH4 MEASUREMENTS AT SCHNEEFERNERHAUS AND THE MOUNTAIN RIDGE AT ZUGSPITZE

A. Hoheisel1, C. Couret2 and M. Schmidt1

(1) Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

(2) German Environment Agency UBA, Zugspitze, Germany

antje.hoheisel@iup.uni-heidelberg.de, cedric.couret@uba.de

ABSTRACT At Zugspitze, Germany, the mole fraction of CO2, CH4 and CO are measured since 2002 at the Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (ZSF). Especially the CO and also the CO2 record measured at ZSF are occasionally influenced by local pollutions. Particularly in winter snow groomer and gasoline snow blowers leads to strong CO peaks. In October 2018 a 200m stainless steel tube, sheltered inside a reinforced stainless steel tube, was installed to sample ambient air from the mountain ridge uphill of the ZSF. The measurements of CO2, CH4 and CO are performed with an additional CRDS analyser at ZSF. Measurements sampled at the mountain ridge show similar large scale patterns, but as expected, much less influence of local pollution compared to ZSF. Between October 2018 and November 2019, 1487 CO and 659 CO2 pollution events were flagged manually in the ZSF time series. Around 75 to 80 % of these high CO2 or CO events mapped at ZSF are not visible in the mountain ridge measurements. Even high CO events of up to 28 000 ppb measured at ZSF due to the usage of gasoline snow blowers at ZSF are most of the time not visible in air collected at the mountain ridge. Local pollutions could only be seen at both measurement sites especially when the wind blows from south-east. Although the local wind patterns are quite different for both locations, due to the shape of the mountain, the mole fraction of CO, CO2 and CH4 from ambient air at ZSF and at the mountain ridge are comparable with a mean difference between the dried measurements of 1.7 ± 3.5 ppb for CO, -0.3 ± 5.0 ppb for CH4 and 0.1 ± 0.5 ppm for CO2. Even though, the measured data from the mountain ridge are much less influenced by local pollution, the continued measurement of ambient air from both locations (ZSF and mountain ridge) would give us some advantages like the opportunity to identify pollution events at the mountain ridge by comparing the data with the ZSF measurements. In addition, the inlet line to the mountain ridge is not always accessible depending on the weather. Measuring at both locations could ensure a continuous time series.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

HISTORICAL SNOW COVER AND WINTER TEMPERATURE EVOLUTION IN

AUSTRIA OVER THE PERIOD 1950-2019

Roland Koch1, Marc Olefs1, Wolfgang Schöner 2

1 Department of Climate Research, Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), Vienna, Austria

2 Institute for Geography and Regional Research, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Email: roland.koch@zamg.ac.at; marc.olefs@zamg.ac.at; wolfgang.schoener@uni-graz.at

ABSTRACT

Based on results of the project SNOWPAT and further work at ZAMG we present an extension and update of an

analysis of snow cover changes (daily total snow depth and new snow amount) at selected and regionally

representative long-term Austrian snow stations in the altitudinal range from 198 m a.s.l. to 2140 m a.s.l. over the

period 1950 to 2019 using a running trend analysis (Mann-Kendall). In addition, high altitude winter time series

are analyzed to support the interpretation. Generally, snow as well as winter temperature data show a strong

interannual and multi-decadal variability, which is accompanied by differently strong but significant negative long-

term trends at the majority of the stations. Temperature data show increasing high altitude winter temperatures,

but only on rather long time-scales. On shorter timescales (up to 30 to 50 years) decadal variability dominates.

The long-term snow cover reduction is found in all altitudes and most regions of Austria, but especially in the west

and south.

This study shows that long and consistent snow and winter mountain temperature time-series are needed (at least

around 50 years) to detect long-term climatic trends of snow conditions, which is due to the high temporal

variability. On a shorter timescale most stations show very strong negative anomalies in the winters 2014/15 to

2016/17 and positive anomalies at medium and high elevation in winter 2017/18.

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Figure 1: Seasonal mean anomalies of snow depth for selected sites (base period is 1981-2010)

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

45 YEARS OF ATMOSPHERIC IN-SITU OBSERVATIONS AT JUNGFRAUJOCH

Martin Steinbacher, Christoph Hueglin, Stefan Reimann, Dominik Brunner, Brigitte Buchmann, Lukas Emmenegger

Empa, Laboratory for Air Pollution and Environmental Technology, Switzerland

martin.steinbacher@empa.ch

ABSTRACT

Science at the high-altitude research station Jungfraujoch has a long history. Empa started its continuous atmospheric measurements at Jungfraujoch as part of an early engagement of Switzerland in a programme organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1973. Initially, activities mainly focused on sulphur dioxide and particulate matter. Later, the measurement programme was extended and the observations became part of the National Air Pollution Monitoring Network (NABEL), which was initiated as a joint activity of Empa and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) in 1978. Today, the observations are also part of various international networks and nearly 100 gaseous species including reactive gases, halogenated species, greenhouse gases and some of their isotopes (e. g., 12CO2 and 13CO2), are currently being measured at Jungfraujoch. The measurements, combined with advanced atmospheric transport models, provide essential information to detect atmospheric composition change and novel man-made substances, to assess air pollution reduction measures, to investigate long-range transport, and to support European greenhouse gas emission estimates from different source regions. The poster presentation will give a comprehensive overview of Empa’s activities at Jungfraujoch and will highlight a few specific achievements.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

STRATOSPHERIC INTRUSIONS AT JUNGFRAUJOCH

Martin Steinbacher1, Martin K. Vollmer1, Franz Conen2, Stefan Reimann1

1Empa, Laboratory for Air Pollution and Environmental Technology, Duebendorf, Switzerland

2Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

martin.steinbacher@empa.ch

ABSTRACT Due to its high elevation (3580 m a.s.l.), Jungfraujoch occasionally experiences intrusions of stratospheric air that last for several hours. These are characterised by a combination of very low humidity, low NOy/CO ratios, low Rn-222 activity, and enhanced ozone concentration. Screening hourly data of three full years for high ozone concentration coinciding with low Rn-222 activity indicated no intrusion in 2016, one in 2017 (June), and six in 2018 (April to August). During stratospheric intrusions no systematic patterns were observed in the concentration of halogenated compounds with different atmospheric lifetimes (CHCl3 = 3 months, HFC-134a = 14 years), suggesting rather short stratospheric residence times before being transported to Jungfraujoch.

Fig. 1: Time series of atmospheric constituents during a stratospheric intrusion episode observed in June 2017.

T O P I C 2

Climate impact on Alpine environment, hazards and

risks

CZECH GROUND MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS AND COLLABORATION WITH

MOUNTAIN OBSERVATORIES Chum, Jaroslav(1), Jan Laštovička(1), Ronald Langer(2), Jiří Baše(1), Jan Rusz(1), Igor Strhárský(2) (1) Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) CAS, Bocni II/1401, 14100 Prague 4, Czech Republic (2) Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences (IEP SAS), Košice, Slovakia Emails: jachu@ufa.cas.cz, jla@ufa.cas.cz, langer@saske.sk, jba@ufa.cas.cz, rusz@ufa.cas.cz, strharsk@saske.sk, ABSTRACT The Czech Republic is newly associated to VAO via its observatory Panska Ves and collaboration between the Institute of Atmospheric Physics CAS (IAP) with German Remote Sensing Data Center of DLR that operates infrared spectrometer and camera at Panska Ves to investigate waves and temperature changes in the mesopause region. IAP operates ground based arrays of microbarometers and ionospheric multi-point continuous Doppler sounder that makes it possible to investigate acoustic-gravity wave activity in the troposphere and in the thermosphere/ionosphere. Joint measurements therefore allow to investigate atmospheric waves in a wide altitude range. In addition, the IAP is involved in investigation of atmospheric electricity. Besides the measurement of atmospheric electric field in the Czech Republic, the IAP also operates these measurements together with Slovak colleagues from IEP SAS in High Tatras mountains. Examples of measurements of acoustic-gravity waves on the ground and in the ionosphere and their analysis will be presented, based on the measurements in Czechia. A search for possible common events with optical measurements in the mesosphere will be shortly discussed. Example of enhancement of secondary cosmic rays and detection of neutrons measured in High Tatras at Lomnický peak IEP SAS observatory (2634 m) during extreme electric fields in thunderclouds will also be shown.

Fig. Example of analysis of gravity waves propagation based on measurement by the array of absolute microbarographs located in the westernmost part of the Czech Republic. Velocities and azimuths are displayed only for significant waves. Waves observed around midnight from 30 June to 1 July 2019 are possible a candidate (source) of waves observed this night also in the ionosphere and mesopause region.

„Changing snow cover conditions in European mountains based on a 35-year time series of high resolution remote sensing data“ Andreas Dietz*, Hu Zhongyang, Ya-Lun Tsai, Claudia Künzer German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), Oberpfaffenhofen, 82234 Wessling * Andreas.Dietz@dlr.de Snow cover is an important variable for water availability, the radiation budget, glaciers, flora and fauna, and may cause natural disasters such as avalanches or floods. In many countries, snow is an important source of freshwater for reservoirs and the subsequent production of electricity, and in many mountainous regions, snow cover plays a vital role for winter tourism. Climate change is affecting the global snow cover distribution, extent, and mass, influencing all the aforementioned parameters. This effect is even more severe in mountainous regions, where in situ data is often sparse and remote sensing is the most reliable data source for long term analyses. In the presented study, the development of snow cover during spring time has been investigated for major European mountain regions, including the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, and the Alps. We collected, processed and analyzed 35 years of all available Landsat, ASTER, and Sentinel-2 data and discovered how climate change is affecting snow melt/the position of snow lines during spring. Even though these climate change-induced impacts vary between the regions, the general trend clearly shows a retreating of snow especially during spring with shorter snow seasons throughout Europe. The presentation will also include a short outlook on our developments of a method to derive information about wet and dry snow cover from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. This technique offers additional insights into the snow cover characteristics, and will allow for more detailed analyses in the future. Keywords: snow cover; Landsat; ASTER; Sentinel-2; snow trend; snow line retreat; SAR; time series

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ALPSENSE: ALPINE REMOTE SENSING OF CLIMATE-INDUCED NATURAL HAZARDS: A MULTI-METHOD HAZARD PREDICTION

Krautblatter Michael (1), Mayer Christoph (2), Münzer Ulrich (3), Siegert Florian (4), Stilla Uwe (5),

Wunderlich Thomas (6), Kraushaar Sabine (7), Keuschnig Markus (8), Leinauer Johannes (1)

(1) Technical University Munich, Chair of Landslide Research, Department of Civil Geo and Environmental Engineering, Germany; (2) Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Erdmessung und Glaziologie; (3) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Department for Geo- and Environmental Sciences, Remote

Sensing; (4) 3D RealityMaps GmbH, Baierbrunn; (5) Technical University Munich, Chair of Photogramme-try and Remote Sensing; (6) Technical University Munich, Chair of Geodesy; (7) University of Vienna, De-

partment of Geography and Regional Research; (8) GeoResearch Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Wals Österreich

Corresponding author: m.krautblatter@tum.de

ABSTRACT

The decline of glaciers, ice fields and permafrost is currently severe at many alpine sites. Cli-mate-induced alpine hazards are a significant threat to alpine communities, infrastructure and economies. Rock falls, debris flows and other mass movements show increasing response to melting glaciers, degrading permafrost and more frequent heavy rainfall events. Due to fast changes of climate and induced hazards, there is a strong demand for research in risk anticipa-tion, clever early warning strategies and purposive measures. A systematic analysis of the pre-dictive power of a multi-method approach for climate-induced natural hazards is missing. The AlpSense project aims to anticipate climate induced natural hazards comprehensively at an early stage for Bavaria and the European alpine region. AlpSense quantifies climate forc-ing and provides all relevant information for preparation of future events. We work in several representative test sites in the critical 2000-3000+ m a.s.l. range. Here, the effects of climate change are most evident and frequent hazards appear near dense tourist infrastructure: the Wetterstein Mountains (GER) with Zugspitze, Höllental and Reintal, the Hochvogel Moun-tain (GER/AUT) and the verification sites Vernagtferner (AUT/IT) and Kitzsteinhorn/ Sattel-kar (AUT). Most of these sites provide unique long-term observation and monitoring histories often dating back to the 19th century. Here we present results of the AlpSenseBench project: (i) identification of hazard hotspots through regional UltraCam aerial surveys; (ii) modelling of hazardous rapid deformation mass movements; (iii) setups towards near real-time monitoring and early warning.

Fig. 1: Multi-method approach at the Hochvogel Mountain (GER/AUT).

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

DAVOS-WEISSFLUHJOCH: AN ALPINE HOTSPOT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONEMENTAL OBSERVATIONS

Marty C., Bebi P., Phillips M., Fierz C.

WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos

marty@slf.ch

ABSTRACT Davos-Weissfluhjoch is home of many long-term data series of different atmospheric, cryospheric and ecological variables. The region is part of the WMO Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) surface observation network CryoNet. More exactly, Davos-Weissfluhjoch is a so-called Integrated CryoNet Cluster, because more than one component of the cryosphere is observed at more than one station in a coordinated unit. Such Integrated Clusters are particularly important for the study of feedback and complex interactions between these components. The Davos-Weissfluhjoch Cluster consists of 19 stations. Most of them have long-term series of snow depth and/or snowfall. Among those is the world’s longest daily snow depth series above 2200 m elevation, at Weissfluhjoch. A few other stations also monitor snow water equivalent, one measures permafrost temperatures and another monitors glacier length and mass balance. In addition, the Davos-Weissfluhjoch region hosts long-term observations for three other international monitoring programs. One is the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) station Davos which provides high quality measurements of radiation, aerosols and ozone. Secondly, there is the Integrated Carbon Observations System (ICOS) station Davos, which belongs to a European network providing greenhouse gas measurements, with the goal to quantify and understand the greenhouse gas balance. Thirdly, there is European Long-Term Ecological Research (eLTER) site Stillberg, where 92’000 saplings of three tree species were planted in 1975 and where an intensive monitoring of these trees and various environmental parameters has been conducted since then. We will present a short overview of the unique variety of interdisciplinary observations available from a relatively small Alpine area and provide some details about the history and temporal changes of some selected measurement series.

T O P I C 3

Alpine water cycle

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

NEW TRANSIENT HYDROLOGICAL SCENARIOS AND TIME OF EMERGENCE FOR ALPINE CATCHMENTS IN SWITZERLAND

Regula Muelchi, Ole Rössler, Jan Schwanbeck, Rolf Weingartner, Olivia Martius

University of Bern, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Institute of Geography

regula.muelchi@giub.unibe.ch

ABSTRACT Climate change and its impact on the runoff will affect many different sectors such as agriculture, energy production, or water management. Therefore, assessing future changes in runoff is very crucial for adaptation planners and decision-making authorities but also important to emphasize the benefits of mitigation. Under the comprehensive framework Hydro-CH2018 we simulate future runoff for the period 1981-2099 in Switzerland. The study uses the new transient Swiss climate change scenarios CH2018 derived from EURO-CORDEX simulations (http://www.ch2018.ch/) with three different emission pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). Multiple GCM-RCM simulations were downscaled to a 2x2 km grid and used as input for the hydrological model. The hydrological simulations are run with the deterministic semi-distributed hydrological modelling system PREVAH and changes in glacier extents are simulated with an external dynamic coupled ice flow-surface mass balance model. Over 100 meso-scale catchments distributed over Switzerland covering a wide range of different catchment characteristics (from pluvial to snow or glacier driven catchments) are simulated and analyzed. The project determines potential runoff regime shifts and their seasonality under climate change. The transient property of the climate change scenarios allows for the first time to determine the time of emergence of regime shifts and of changes in other hydrological indices for Swiss catchments. Further, we analyze trends in low flow (e.g. mean annual minimum over 7 days, MAM7) and high flow (e.g. flood frequency) indices. First results show shifts in runoff regimes with increasing winter runoff and decreasing summer runoff due a combination of changing precipitation patterns and enhanced snow and glacier melt, particularly in Alpine catchments. Low flow analysis indicates decreasing MAM7 for lower to medium high catchments and increasing low flows for high Alpine catchments due to enhanced runoff in winter. Also, the seasonality of low flows is changing in some of the catchments. The analysis of the time of emergence indicates particularly early shifts in summer and winter runoff in high Alpine catchments. This study provides a comprehensive perspective on the hydrological responses to climate change in Switzerland.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

SIMULATED FUTURE RUNOFF REGIME CHANGES FOR A GLACIERIZED MONITORING CATCHMENT IN THE ÖTZTAL ALPS, AUSTRIA

Ulrich Strasser1, Michael Warscher1 and Florian Hanzer1,2

1 University of Innsbruck, Department of Geography, Innsbruck, Austria

2 Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

ulrich.strasser@uibk.ac.at

We apply the hydrological model AMUNDSEN to a highly glacierized headwater catchment in the Ötztal Alps (Austria, 558 km2, 24 % ice covered) and simulate future runoff regimes under the changing climatic conditions of the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios (2006 - 2100). AMUNDSEN is a physically based, distributed model for the simulation of the energy and mass balances of snow and ice surfaces and specifically designed for simulations in complex topography. The model comprises an empirical glacier evolution model (∆h-approach) and was extensively validated in space and time. Meteorological forcing is provided by downscaled EURO-CORDEX datasets for three different realizations (moderate, wet and warm). Results are evaluated with respect to change in glacier area and volume, and change of the individual runoff components in the subcatchments (snowmelt, ice melt and rain). To force and validate the simulations a comprehensive hydrometeorological and glaciological data set is employed, originating from a multitude of glaciological, meteorological, hydrological and laser scanning recordings taken at autonomous weather stations, discharge gauges, and a series of distributed (airborne and terrestrial) laser scans, complementing the satellite data used in our study. A permanent terrestrial laser scanner installed 2016 on “Im hintern Eis” (3244 m a.s.l.) to continuously observe almost the entire area of Hintereisferner is unique in its position. The data and research undertaken at the sites of investigation enable combined research of cryospheric, atmospheric and hydrological processes in complex terrain and ideally support the development of modelling studies like the one presented here. Our core site, the Rofental (1891–3772 m a.s.l.), is promoted in several international research initiatives, e.g. LTSER (Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research, https://www.lter-austria.at/rofental/) or INARCH (International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology, http://words.usask.ca/inarch). The original research data sets are provided to the scientific community according to the Creative Commons Attribution License by means of the PANGAEA repository (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.876120).

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

A VERY HIGH-RESOLUTION REGIONAL CLIMATE SIMULATION FOR CENTRAL EUROPE AND COUPLED HYDROLOGICAL AND SNOW COVER

SIMULATIONS

Michael Warscher1, Patrick Laux3, Ulrich Strasser1, Harald Kunstmann2,3

1 University of Innsbruck, Department of Geography, Innsbruck, Austria 2 University of Augsburg, Institute of Geography, Augsburg, Germany

3 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Campus Alpin, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

michael.warscher@uibk.ac.at

ABSTRACT

Mountain regions are climate sensitive zones and a particular challenge for regional climate and hydrology simulations. The complex orography with extreme elevation gradients, as well as varied land cover and ecosystems at small spatial scales lead to a high variability of climatic conditions and hydrological processes. We present a new high-resolution (5 km) regional climate simulation and a case study for the Berchtesgaden Alps (Germany) using an optimized atmospheric-hydrological model chain to assess potential impacts of a changing climate on the regional hydrology. The study is based on regional climate model (RCM) simulations with WRF for the time periods 1980-2009 (ERA-Interim reanalysis and MPI-ESM control run) and 2020-2049 (MPI-ESM, scenario RCP4.5). The reanalysis simulation is validated on different spatial and temporal scales, ranging from monthly climatology for Central Europe and the Alps using different gridded observation datasets to hourly values at the point scale using station measurements. The focus of the validation is on the meteorological variables that subsequently force the hydrological model (HM) WaSiM, which are temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and short-wave incoming radiation. To account for RCM model biases and differences in elevations between the RCM and HM grids, a specific coupling procedure is implemented using two different bias correction methods. Additionally, the hydrological model is extended to account for important mountain-specific processes (lateral snow transport and snow-canopy interaction). Validation results show that the RCM simulation is able to reproduce observed temperature from the large scale (mean bias for the Alps: -0.3 °C) to the hourly station scale (R2 between 0.71 and 0.99 with an RMSE of 1.5 °C). Precipitation is overestimated mainly in summer, whereas winter precipitation is captured very well (annual mean bias for the Alps: + 19 %). Mean warming in Central Europe exhibits a temperature increase between 0.44 °C and 1.59 °C and is strongest in winter and spring. An elevation-dependent warming is found for different specific regions and seasons, but is absent in others. Annual precipitation changes between -4 % and +25 % in Central Europe. The coupled RCM-HM simulations reveal that the climate change signal until 2050 has only limited impacts on the runoff characteristics of the investigated catchment. Most remarkably, mean snow cover duration is projected to decrease with a clear seasonal shift of maximum snow melt to earlier months. These changes in snow cover dynamics are less pronounced in forested areas compared to open land.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

RUNOFF SEPARATION OF THE PARTNACH RIVER BY MEANS OF DIFFERENT METHODS

Stefan Weishaupt, Karl-Friedrich Wetzel

University of Augsburg, Institute of Geography, D-86159 Augsburg, Germany

stefan.weishaupt@geo.uni-augsburg.de, wetzel@geo.uni-augsburg.de

ABSTRACT The Alps, often described as water towers of Europe, play an important role in the water supply of the surrounding lowlands. The high mountainous areas receive disproportionately high precipitation in the shape of rain and snow. Snow and ice cover function as a temporal water storage and they have a compensative impact on the water amounts of the alpine river and water availability in the foothills of the Alps during the spring and early summer period. The Partnach River drains a highly karstified 11.4 km² wide catchment beneath the Zugspitze stretching from 2,962 m to 1,440 m a.s.l. Snow cover lasts from October to the end of June und meltwater is a main source of runoff in this area. Due to the problems related with the registration of solid precipitation and the high spatial variability of the water equivalent stored in the snow cover, only a rough estimate of the meltwater proportion in total runoff exists. By means of both, geochemical and isotopic tracers, knowledge of the significance of the meltwater component should be improved. Special attention was drawn to the role of environmental stable isotopes (2H, 18O) in separating snowmelt runoff. Samples of different waters of glacial ice from the “Nördlicher Schneeferner”, snow layers and meltwater during the melting period from the snowpack on the Zugspitzplatt, river water at the karst spring and precipitation were taken in the catchment area of the Partnach. The analysis result of the content of environmental stable isotopes (2H, 18O) of the samples by mass spectrometry evidenced differentiating isotopic compositions of the water components. It also proved the altering isotopic composition of meltwater during the proceeding melting period, and their changing characteristics reappeared in the isotopically changing trend of the spring water. Performing a two-component hydrograph separation allowed distinguishing the different runoff constituents by the use of stable isotopes as a tracer as a preliminary result. Furthermore, the results are showing the need of an improved knowledge of the altitudinal differentiation of isotope fractionating processes in snow packs if stable isotopes are used for meltwater separation in areas with high altitudinal extensions.

Figure: Two component hydrograph separation of meltwater from total runoff using the stable isotope deuterium and electric conductivity as tracers in the hydrological summer season 2016.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

SEASONAL SNOW AGES WATER FROM ALPINE CATCHMENTS IN UNEXPECTED WAYS

Natalie Ceperley1, 2, Giulia Zuecco3, Harsh Beria1, Anthony Michelon1, Bettina Schaefli1,2

1Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland 2Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland

3Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Italy Kingdom

Correspondance : Natalie Ceperley, natalie.ceperley@unil.ch

ABSTRACT Quantification and prediction of water age contributes to water resource management, for example by helping anticipate and mitigate droughts and their consequences. This is especially true in places with a distinct cold season, where the snowmelt contribution to stream flow creates a much higher summer than winter flow. If summer flow strongly depends on the previous winter’s snowfall, a low amount of snowfall in a given year can result in a late summer or autumn drought with ramifications for downstream water users and ecosystems. The important role the Alps play providing water downstream, or to the majority of the subcontinent, will be particularly vital as temperatures warm, precipitation patterns change, and water demand and supply change seasonality. Furthermore, snow packs that previously lasted entire seasons may become intermittent. In this context, water age estimation based on hydrological tracers (such as stable isotopes of water) provides crucial insight to understand how water is distributed in and by the subsoil. Despite of intense research in this field, we know little about how and how quickly snow cycles through catchments, and its variation according to seasonal versus intermittent snow covers. In this work, we present a framework to assess young water fractions in Alpine catchments based on stable isotopes of water. We present results from a recent study addressing this question based on field work in three high-elevation Alpine catchments, one in the Swiss and two in the Italian Alps. Explicitly accounting for snowmelt changed our understanding of how long it takes water to flow through the catchments. The main conclusion is that such high-elevation Alpine catchments might have relatively "old" water or low fractions of young water. Our results underline the critical importance of understanding how the transition from seasonal to intermittent snow cover might affect water resources in Alpine environments.

MONITORING ALPINE CRYOSPHERE USING SATELLITE DATA

Carlo Marin, Mattia Callegari, Claudia Notarnicola, Marc Zebisch

Institute for Earth Observation, Eurac Research, Viale Druso, 1 39100 Bolzano - Italy

carlo.marin@eurac.edu, claudia.notarnicola@eurac.edu

Alpine water resources influence the economic and social development in the Alps by affecting the water supply

of important activities such as the agricultural irrigation and hydropower production. During the last decades,

many studies focused on understanding the effects of climate change on the water resources of the Alps. In fact,

during the last years a considerable part of Europe was confronted with severe water shortages and scarcity. In the

mountains regions most of the available water resources in spring and early summer are provided by the melting

of snow and glaciers. Beside of ground data and hydrological models, satellite remote sensing is becoming a

valuable tool for Alpine cryosphere monitoring. Remote sensing data provide a synoptic view to monitor wide and

remote areas, especially where in-situ measurements are scarce or not available. With this contribution, we present

the satellite-based products developed at Eurac Research, which aim at representing important parameters related

to the alpine cryosphere. These are described in detail in the following, illustrating the importance of the parameter

and the proposed method used for extracting them from the remote sensing data.

Snow is one of the most important water resources present in the Alps. It stores water in winter and releases it in

spring during the melting season. Monitoring the evolution of snow and its variability is of great importance for

supporting water administration. In this work, we will present the daily snow cover maps at 250 m resolution

derived from MODIS data using a physical based decision tree algorithm, the high-resolution snow cover maps at

20 m resolution derived from Sentinel 2 data using Support Vector Machine (SVM), and the high-resolution wet

snow maps derived with a novel multi-temporal approach that exploits the high temporal resolution provided by

the Sentinel-1 mission. From the snow and wet snow cover maps it is possible to extract useful information that

describe the snow dynamics such as snow cover area and snow cover duration.

Changes in mountain glaciers are among the most relevant indicators of climate changes. Moreover, glaciers act

as freshwater reservoirs in the alpine catchments. In this work, we present the glacier cover maps realized through

a multi-temporal approach based on Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). This

approach can be applied to a single sensor dataset (e.g. Sentinel-2) or can be employed for integrating different

sensor time series (e.g. Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2). The glacier cover map product identifies the glacier cover type

of a glacier, discriminating snow, ice, firn and bare soil. The snow line, i.e. the line separating snow from bare ice

or firn, can be retrieved from these maps. At the end of the ablation period, the late summer snowline altitude can

be interpreted as an approximation of the equilibrium line altitude (ELA).

More information can be found at sao.eurac.edu

(a) (b) (c)

(a) Wet snow (in blue) on 05 May 2015 at 17:06:00 UTC over South-Tyrol, Italy; (b) Glacier cover map of

September, 2nd 2015 on the Ortler Alps, Italy and (c) daily snow cover area evolution in South Tyrol. Credit:

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2015]/ESA.

T O P I C 4

Environment and human

health

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

HEALTH EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS

Urs Baltensperger, Imad El Haddad, Jianhui Jiang, André S.H. Prévôt, Kaspar R. Daellenbach*

Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

*Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research / Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

urs.baltensperger@psi.ch

ABSTRACT

Air pollution has adverse health effects. While ozone, nitrogen dioxide and other constituents contribute to these health effects as well, a major part of them is attributed to atmospheric aerosols. Multiple studies have corroborated a high correlation between mortality and PM10 and even more so with PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 and 2.5 micrometer, respectively). Despite of this correlation, the mechanisms (of which there are obviously multiple pathways) are still largely unknown. The atmospheric aerosol is a complex mixture of thousands of different compounds. There are multiple sources contributing to this atmospheric aerosol, which vary widely spatially and seasonally. The toxicity of different aerosol components is highly different such that the high correlation between mortality and PMx cannot a priori be expected.

We will discuss methods to quantify the contributions of various sources to the total aerosol. We will then summarize some of the effects of aerosols on human health, and discuss proxies that may be useful to assess these health effects. Finally we will present a way forward to improve our knowledge on links between aerosols and adverse health effects.

INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS ON SECONDARY COSMIC RAY NEUTRON FLUX AT THE TWO HIGH-ALTITUDE RESEARCH

STATIONS JUNGFRAUJOCH AND ZUGSPITZE

Thomas Brall1; Vladimir Mares1; Werner Rühm1; Rolf Bütikofer2

1Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Radiation Medicine, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany

2Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern

thomas.brall@helmholtz-muenchen.de

ABSTRACT

The secondary cosmic ray neutron spectrum in the Earth's atmosphere does not include many thermal and epithermal neutrons, i.e. neutrons with energies below several eV. In contrast, close to the Earth’s ground surface more neutrons with these low energies are present, due to albedo neutrons backscattered from the ground. The number of albedo neutrons is mainly determined by soil moisture and by snow cover. To investigate this effect two measurement campaigns were carried out at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch with different environmental conditions: with snow cover (June 2016) and with much less snow cover (September 2018) around the locations of measurements. Since 2004 the energy spectra of neutrons are continously measured at the Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus, Zugspitze. For the measurements of the energy distributions of the neutrons an Extended Range Bonner Sphere Spectrometer (ERBSS) system is used. The measurements at Jungfraujoch were carried out at two locations: below the roof of the Research Station and in the Sphinx astronomical cupola. Close to both locations the University of Bern operates neutron monitors (3-NM64 and 18-IGY), see figure. The ERBSS measurements at Jungfraujoch show that the snowpack in the surrounding area has only a minor effect on the fluence of secondary cosmic ray neutrons. However, a clear influence of the topography of the environment on the secondary cosmic ray neutrons was observed. In addition to the measurements, the influence of the topography of the environment on the neutron flux at the locations of measurements was simulated by Monte Carlo computations based on Geant4 toolkit.

Measurement locations at Jungfraujoch and Zugspitze: 1) below the roof of the Research station close to the 3-NM64 Neutron Monitor (left); 2) in the Sphinx astronomical cupola close to the 18-IGY Neutron Monitor (middle); 3) in the instrumentation shed “Kugel Alm” at the UFS terrace (right). (Photos: V. Mares)

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

WHY COSMIC RAY MONITORING AT HIGH ALTITUDE?

Rolf Bütikofer

International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat

rolf.buetikofer@space.unibe.ch

ABSTRACT

Cosmic ray investigations at Jungfraujoch have a long history. In the beginning the effect of increasing cosmic ray intensity with ascending altitude as well as the composition of the cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere were the main topics of the research activities. Continuous cosmic ray monitoring with neutron monitors at Jungfraujoch started in the late fifties of the last century. The measurement series today covers a period of more than 60 years, i.e. more than five solar activity cycles. Neutron monitors are primarily sensitive to neutrons of the secondary cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere. The detectors at Jungfraujoch are part of a worldwide network of such standardized neutron monitors. During the first decades of neutron monitor measurements the data were mainly used to investigate the variations of cosmic rays within the heliosphere: variations caused by the 11-year solar activity cycle, Forbush decreases, and solar cosmic rays produced in sporadically occurring high energy processes at the Sun. In the last decades also the influence of the cosmic rays on the system Earth as well as on the living beings became subject of research. Is there a link between changes in cosmic ray characteristics (intensity, energy spectrum) near Earth and climate or weather? What is the radiation exposure at mountain altitudes or at typical flight altitudes caused by cosmic rays? These questions will be discussed in this contribution.

Snow cavern serving as a cosmic ray laboratory during the expedition at the top of the Mönch by W. Kolhörster and G. von Salis in 1926 (left), IGY neutron monitor with detector housing on the roof of the Sphinx observatory at Jungfraujoch (middle), solar cosmic ray event on 15 April 2001 as recorded by the two neutron monitors at Jungfraujoch (right).

• oral presentation • Session IV: Environment and human health

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY DEPOSITION AND ACCUMULATION IN ALPINE ECOSYSTEMS

Mirjam Dietrich1, Gabriela Ratz1, Matthias Mauder2, Till Rehm3, Wolfgang Moche4, Monika

Denner4, Jürgen Diemer1, Karl-Friedrich Wetzel5, Korbinian P. Freier1

1 Bavarian Environment Agency, Augsburg, Germany

2 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

3 Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus, Zugspitze, Germany 4 Environment Agency, Vienna, Austria

5University of Augsburg, Germany

Corresponding authors: pk-mirjam.dietrich@lfu.bayern.de, Korbinian.freier@lfu.bayern.de

ABSTRACT FOR ORAL PRESENTATION (4. ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH)

By ratifying the Minamata Convention of Mercury in 2013, 93 countries worldwide have pledged to reduce mercury (Hg) emissions to protect human health and the environment. The main sources of anthropogenic Hg emissions include small-scale gold extraction, coal combustion as well as metal smelting. Hg and its organic derivatives are highly toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative. Once emitted, Hg enters the atmosphere and resides there over several months. Undergoing long-range atmospheric transport, it is distributed globally and therefore represents a ubiquitous pollutant. As part of the "PureAlps" projects of the Bavarian Environment Agency and the Environment Agency Austria, a broad spectrum of environmental media has been sampled between 2016 and 2019 in the Bavarian Alps (Zugspitze/Wettersteingebirge/Germany) and the Austrian Alps (Hohe Tauern/Austria) as well as in the alpine forelands (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Augsburg/Germany) to investigate the atmospheric burden of Hg and its enrichment in alpine ecosystems. The samples include bulk deposition, sediment and water from different water bodies, soils and biota (herbivores, carnivores, fish, eggs, insects). In addition to the determination of the Hg concentration, 13C- and 15N-isotope analysis was conducted to identify Hg biomagnification pathways. The investigation focuses on the hypothesis that a reduction of actual atmospheric Hg achieves a rapid reduction of Hg contamination in the alpine biota. The results of the study show that this hypothesis applies to the fluvial ecosystems at Zugspitze (Partnach, Loisach, Hammersbach), since the Hg there originates mainly from the actual atmosphere. However, the hypothesis does not seem to be valid within limnic ecosystems (Eibsee, Seebensee), since the Hg there originates mainly from accumulated Hg in the sediment. The extent to which actual atmospheric Hg plays a role in the terrestrial ecosystems of the Alps has not yet been clarified.

Figure 1: Mercury concentration in alpine biota by trophic level, left: terrestrial ecosystems, right: aquatic ecosystems.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Hg in

µg/

kg w

w

Mercury concentration in biota by trophic level

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

TOWARDS A BIOCLIMATIC INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE ALPS

Thilo Erbertseder1, Lisa Mittelstädt2, Lorenza Gilardi1, Oleg Goussev1, Stephan Hachinger3, Claudia-Traidl Hoffman4 and Michael Bittner1,2

1) Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-u Raumfahrt (DLR), Deutsches Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum

2) Universität Augsburg, Fakultät für Physik, Atmosphärenfernerkundung 3) Leibniz Rechenzentrum der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (LRZ)

4) Technische Universität München, Lehrstuhl und Institut für Umweltmedizin, UNIKA-T

Thilo.Erbertseder@dlr.de

ABSTRACT Environmental stressors such as air temperature, radiation, humidity, wind speed and air pollution can affect human health in many ways. In addition, climate change modifies these parameters, with extremes in particular increasing. The human organism is faced with new challenges. In order to assess the influence of these environmental stressors on human health and to be able to plan targeted adaptation measures and to promote preventive medicine, it is essential to quantify their impact on different health endpoints. In particular people at risk, e.g., suffering from cardio-vascular or respiratory diseases, children or the elderly are potentially affected. Within the “Research Network Climate Change and Health” funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection, a prototype of a Bioclimatic Information System (BioClis) has been developed as a service of the Environmental Research Station Scheefernerhaus (UFS). With BioClis, a tool has been created that enables to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the aggregate health risk resulting from air pollution as well as heat and cold stress. The Aggregate Risk Index (ARI) represents an algorithm to estimate the impact of short-term exposure to the air pollutants NO2, SO2, O3, PM2.5 and PM10. In particular, the ARI estimates the increase of the health risk, i.e. mortality and morbidity, depending on multiple and additive air pollutant concentrations for different pathologies and age classes. To quantify heat and cold stress the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) is considered taking into account air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and radiation. Now BioClis provides a web-based information system with daily analyzes and forecasts of the ARI, the UTCI, meteorological parameters and air pollutant concentrations. The information offered includes daily updated color-coded maps at NUTS3 administrative levels as well as interactive time series charts. BioClis is built on the IT infrastructure "AlpEnDAC" (Alpine Environmental Data Analysis Center - www.alpendac.eu) of the UFS and the VAO (Virtual Alpine Observatory). Within this IT-infrastructure operational data sources are used like POLYPHEMUS/DLR, WRF, the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) and weather forecasts from COSMO and ICON of the German Weather Service (DWD). Thanks to the modular and scalable VAO IT-infrastructure and the cooperation with the ARGE-ALP project AlpClimNet, BioClis has recently been expanded to cover the whole Alpine region. This system will be demonstrated and possible contributions from VAO members discussed. Further we will present an assessment of the average health risk increase for several health endpoints using longer-term data records.

BioClis: Example map of ARI for January 4, 2020 (left). The health risk and UTCI for Bern was selected (right).

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

LONG TERM ANALYSIS OF AN AGGREGATE HEALTH RISK DUE TO THE

EXPOSURE TO AIR POLLUTION ON A BROAD AREA COVERAGE

L. Gilardi (1), T. Erbertseder (1), L. Mittelstädt (2), F. Baier (1) and M. Bittner (1, 2)

(1) DLR German Remote Sensing Data Center – Department Atmosphere (DLR DFD-

ATM), (2) University of Augsburg, Institute of Physics

Author email: lorenza.gilardi@dlr.de

ABSTRACT

The possible negative impact on health as a result of the exposition to anthropogenic air pollution is a matter of

ongoing discussion. The World Health Organization (WHO) [1] has identified in air pollution the single largest

standalone health burden. The European Environmental Agency (EEA) reports that in 2016 a significant

proportion of the European population was exposed to annual average concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and

O3 that exceeded the WHO Air Quality Guidelines (WHO-AQG) [2]. This trend especially concerns areas of high

industrialization and urbanization. This is why a deeper analysis of the pollution-exposure/organism-response

relationship is required, with a special focus on the higher-risk areas. For this purpose it is possible to exploit the

methodology developed within the BioClis project of the DLR German Remote Sensing Data Center, funded by

the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection and the Bavarian State Ministry of

Health and Care. The primary objective of BioClis was the assessment of the health risks related to the short

term regional exposure to air pollution, taking into account various potential health endpoints and population

vulnerability grades. The approach consisted in the linear addition of the key pollutants’ concentrations,

weighted by relative risk factors, derived from specific pollutant and health outcome epidemiological studies [3].

The result was an estimation of an Aggregate Risk Index (ARI), displayed on a thematic map. For the purpose of

the project, the geographical range of this evaluation covered Bavaria and the Alpine region. Using the

Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) multi-year reanalysis as a source of pollutant

concentrations, the method can be easily replicated and applied to a broader spatial field in the European

geographical domain, enabling the comparison of areas with heterogeneous environmental and demographic

characteristics, such as the alpine region and the major European urban centers. Using these tools, it is possible

to assess the ARI's climatology with broader area coverage and thus classify the "hot spots," e.g. areas where the

ARI has been shown to be higher on average over several years. As expected, the result shows that areas known

to be dominated by a high level of urbanization and industrialization are generally more often exposed to

significant increase of health risk in the long term. This result reflects the current ARI formulation, based on a

linear proportionality with the pollutants’ concentration. The comparison of these findings with the Eurostat data

of Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) provided on an annual basis and on administrative levels 2 of the

Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) shows a first possible link between the calculated risk

index and the real impact on health. To validate the results and better tune the index formulation and to also take

into account non-linear dependencies due to simultaneous exposure to complex mixtures of pollutants, death and

disease outbreak health data with higher spatial and temporal

resolution are required.

[1] World Health Organization Geneva, 2014, Methods for burden of

disease attributable to ambient air pollution for the year 2012. :

(http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/databases/AAP_

BoD_methods_March2014.pdf?ua=1 , accessed Dec 2019) [2] European Environmental Agency, 2019, Air quality in Europe

2019 report, pages 61-70. [3] Sicard, P.,et al., 2012. The Aggregate Risk Index: An intuitive

tool providing the health risks of air pollution to health care

community. Atm Env, 46, 11-16.

Figure 1: Number of days with an increased risk of

mortality due to all causes of / over 16% in the time

span 2010-2016 due to the exposition to air pollution

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

IMPACT OF DESERT DUST CONTRIBUTIONS TO PM10 LIMIT VALUE

EXCEEDANCE IN STYRIA (SOUTHERN AUSTRIA) FROM 2013-2018

Marion Greilinger 1,2, Johannes Zbiral 2 and Anne Kasper-Giebl 2

1 Department of Climate Research, Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), 1190 Vienna,

Austria 2 Institute for Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Vienna University of Technology, 1060 Vienna, Austria

Email: marion.greilinger@zamg.ac.at; johannes.zbiral@tuwien.ac.at; anneliese.kasper-giebl@tuwien.ac.at

ABSTRACT

As Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations are known to have severe impact on human health, the European

Commission (EC) has established limit values for PM in the air quality directive 2008/50/EC. Therein, a daily

limit for PM10 of 50 µg/m³ is stated, which may be exceeded on 35 days per year. The main goal of the regulation

is to avoid, prevent and reduce harmful effects of ambient air pollution on human health and the environment as a

whole. The directive offers the possibility to provide evidence that the exceedance is due, in part or as a whole, to

natural sources which can be assessed but not controlled. If the contribution of a natural source can be quantified

its contribution may thus be subtracted from the daily mass concentration, which might affect the compliance with

air quality limit values. The natural contributions of desert dust assessed in the directive can vary significantly

depending on the place where they are measured and are especially relevant in Southern and South-eastern Europe

due to their vicinity to the dry regions in Africa, mainly the Saharan desert, and the Arabian Peninsula. It is well

known that desert dust outbreaks regularly occur in Austria as well, although their impact is less pronounced than

in the Mediterranean region. Their influence on air quality has not been investigated so far and a discussion of the

EC methodology for the subtraction of desert dust contributions is completely missing.

This study presents the first validity check of the applicability of the EC methodology for Austria. This is of high

relevance as both facts, exceedances of short-term limit values of PM10 and the influence of desert dust occur in

Austria. The applicability of the approach proposed in the European Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC), for the

subtraction of desert dust contributions, is investigated for two stations in the region of Graz, Styria, over a time

period of six years (2013 to 2018). The evaluation is focused on days with PM10 concentrations exceeding the

daily limit value of 50µg/m³ as set by the European Commission. It provides a discussion on the selection of a

suitable regional background station as well as a discussion on the statistical approach used for the computation

of the BGL. Results describe a methodology, using the monthly mean average of the PM10 concentration at the

regional background station, without an exclusion of days with possible influence of desert dust. This accounts for

the higher uncertainties of model calculations which can be expected for Austria in comparison to regions closer

to the source. The results of calculated NDLs were in reasonable agreement with crustal loads determined on filter

samples during two desert dust events in 2016.

The study highlights that desert dust can be responsible for limit value exceedances, although anthropogenic

sources are mainly responsible for those. Still the scales might be tipped in favour of a transgression of the legal

maximum amount of days exceeding the daily PM10 limit value as given in the EU directive, where one single day

can be crucial.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Figure 1: Particulate matter (PM10) time series of the two stations investigated. The red line marks the 50 µg/m³

limit value set by the European Commission. Orange stars mark desert dust events on days where the PM10

concentration was > 50 µg/m³. The red star marks an intense Saharan dust event in April 2016.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

CITIZEN SCIENCE – RESEARCH INTERFACE BETWEEN ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH?

Hammel, Gertrud1,2; Harter, Katharina1,3; Traidl-Hoffmann, Claudia1,2,4

1Chair and Institute of Environmental Medicine, UNIKA-T, Technical University of Munich

and Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neusässer Straße 47, 86156 Augsburg, Germany 2Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, University Outpatient Clinic for Environmental Medicine,

Stenglinstraße 2, 86156 Augsburg, Germany 3Chair of Health Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of

Augsburg, Germany 4CK-CARE, Christine Kühne - Center for Allergy Research and Education, Herman-

Burchard-Strasse 1, 7265 Davos Wolfgang, Schweiz

gertrud.hammel@helmholtz-muenchen.de

ABSTRACT

Citizen science is an emerging interface between citizens and scientists. In recent years citizen science projects have been both politically supported and initiated by the scientific community in almost every research area. Citizens can participate in research projects with different levels of engagement, from collectors of data to collaborators with the scientists on project design and data analysis. This close interaction is appreciated especially in cases where it would not be possible for the scientists to collect the data on their own, e.g. the data are regional disseminated or simply too much, or where specialized knowhow can be provided through citizens. Finally it also helps frame the scientific project around a need or problem of society.

Observing natural phenomena is one of the areas where citizens are already involved in biological or environmental projects. People are voluntarily measuring, counting, photographing, documenting and classifying observed phenomena in their free time. Frequently their observed data is uploaded via internet platforms or using an app on their own smartphone.

In the medical research the observed “object” is the patient. If the idea of citizen science is applied in medical research, subject and object is the same person. Because all information about health is considered sensitive, all project partners applying citizen science to medical research will have to stick to the legal regulation of data safety, data security and ethical issues.

Applying a citizen science approach to environmental medicine will combine two types of observations and data. Firstly there is the technical data: environmental hazards are monitored through sensors (pollutants) or traps (pollen); and secondly the individual part: volunteers report their symptoms, fill in questionnaires and provide biomaterial. Using citizen science could hence provide the missing link between environmental hazards and recorded symptoms and subsequently enhance scientific knowledge.

Blood pressure and High Altitude

Franz H. Messerli

Department of Cardiology and Clinical Research, Inselspital Bern, University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland

messerli.f@gmail.com

Abstract

Exposure to High Altitude (HA) elicits specific changes in the cardiovascular system. However, these changes are different with acute short-term exposure, i. e High Altitude Tourists (HATs) and chronic exposure, i. e. High Altitude Dwellers (HADs).

Worldwide approximately 140 million people are living at high altitudes. In these HADs hypertension prevalence seems low but is more common with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Pathogenically, polycythemia and chronic mountain sickness appear to be strongly associated with ambulatory hypertension.

In HATs 24h blood pressure increases at HA, proportionally to the altitude achieved. The blood pressure increase occurs in hypertensive HATs and normotensives HATs. Consequently, blood pressure and common cardiovascular risk factors should be controlled before ascension to HA. In treated hypertensive HATs adequate changes in the therapeutic regimen may be needed before HA exposure.

Submission: For oral presentation

Topic IV: Environment and human health

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

AIRBORNE POLLEN AND FUNGAL SPORES WHERE AEROALLERGENS SHOULD NOT EXIST: WHERE IS IT SAFE FOR ALLERGIC PATIENTS?

Maria P. Plaza1 a, Daniela Bayr1, Franziska Kolek1, Vivien Leier-Wirtz1, Stefanie Gilles1,

Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann1 2, Athanasios Damialis1

1 Chair and Institute of Environmental Medicine, UNIKA-T, Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany - German Research Center for Environmental

Health, Augsburg, Germany 2 Christine Kühne Center for Allergy Research and Education (CK-CARE), Davos,

Switzerland

a corresponding author: maria.plaza@tum.de

ABSTRACT Pollen and fungal spores (aeroallergens) are main causes of respiratory allergies worldwide. So as to more efficiently treat allergic diseases and especially asthma, higher altitude tourism has been suggested, as aeroallergen exposure becomes significantly shorter and lower in such environments. However, it is not thoroughly investigated as to what extent higher elevation indeed equals to lower aeroallergen concentrations and, concomitantly, to reduced allergic symptoms. As, in general, pollen and fungal spore abundances depend on complex environmental parameters, like prevailing winds, local vegetation, topography local meteorology, it would be assumed that Alpine regions might host unpredictable environmental regimes, temporally and spatially, that would not reliably reflect in lower associated symptoms. Therefore, there is a fundamental question rising: is there actually a ‘safe’ place or time period that we can ‘switch off’ allergies and can an alpine ecosystem be such a place? If this is true, are there any factors that can help us predict higher risk aeroallergen exposure so as to provide efficient warning alerts to sensitized individuals? To answer the above, we investigated the spatiotemporal patterns of airborne pollen and fungal spores on a high-altitude location aiming to identify the origin of airborne pollen and fungal spores and, moreover, to integrate these patterns with real-life symptoms in an allergic human cohort. The research was carried out in 2016 in the alpine research station UFS (Umweltforschungsstation Schneefernerhaus), located at 2650 m. a.s.l., on the Zugspitze Mountain in Bavaria, Germany. The diversity and abundance of airborne pollen and fungal spores, for the whole spectrum of taxa, was examined by use of portable Hirst-type volumetric traps, both indoors and outdoors, and expressed as numbers of grains and spores per cubic metre of air. As a case study, grass pollen-allergic (and control non-allergic) human volunteers were monitored daily during the peak of the grass pollen season in 2016, during a 2-week stay on Zugspitze, 13-24 June. The origin of airborne pollen and fungal spores was identified by use of back trajectory model HYSPLIT for the 20 air mass backward trajectories up to 24 hours for the days when aeroallergens were sampled. The main finding was that exposure indeed may be significantly lower, especically if compared to that at lower altitudes. However, under appropriate environmental conditions, of wind atmospheric pressure and precipitation, systematic episodes of high aeroallergen concentrations may also occur. More than 1,000 pollen grains and fungal spores per cubic metre of air were measured on the UFS within only 4 days. Among them, also pollen to which human cohort were sensitized in, and therefore, patients immediately exhibited allergic symptoms. Both weather patterns and back trajectories showed very marked variability during the 12 days of the study. In combination with known vegetation maps of the surroundings, north Italy and France are considered as the most evident sources of various pollen types, as for Poaceae and Carpinus. The extraordinary high grass pollen levels detected on the UFS during the last three days showed a regional origin within a radius of 150 km. With our study we confirm for the first time that airborne pollen and fungal spore exposure can be high even in extreme environments like in alpine ecosystems and, above all, this is mirrored in allergic symptoms. Actually, high elevation puts individuals under environmental stress, who, concomitantly, may become symptomatic even because of occasional or lower pollen exposure during only short intervals. Especially when repeated incidents of long-range transport of pollen take place beyond and out the pollen season that are proven now to be able to immediately cause allergic symptoms, we suggest that more thorough research on such setups and for whole seasons have to be elaborated in order to clarify the associated mechanisms.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS Illustrations must appear within the designated margins. Please insert low resolution figures in jpg-format.

Figure 1. Back trajectory model (HYSPLIT) for 16 June 2016 ending at midday on the UFS in different heights together with wind-field at the same time.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

PULMONARY ARTERIAL PRESSURE AT REST AND DURING EXERCISE IN CHRONIC MOUNTAIN SICKNESS

Rodrigo Soria1, Matthias Egger2,3, Urs Scherrer1,4, Nicole Bender5, Stefano F. Rimoldi1

1 Department of Cardiology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University of Bern, Bern,

Switzerland. 2 Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 3 Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Family Medicine,

University of Cape Town, South Africa. 4 Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.

5 Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

rodrigo.soriamaldonado@insel.ch

ABSTRACT More than 40 million people are living at high altitude worldwide. An increase of pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) is a hallmark of high-altitude exposure and, if pronounced, may be associated with important morbidity and mortality. Up to 10% of this population suffer from chronic mountain sickness (CMS), which is a debilitating problem. In these patients increased (PAP), may contribute to exercise intolerance and right heart failure. Surprisingly, there is little information on the usual PAP in high-altitude populations and CMS patients. We, therefore, conducted two systematic reviews (MEDLINE and EMBASE) and meta-analysis of studies published (in English or Spanish) on echocardiographic estimations of PAP and measurements of arterial oxygen saturation: 1) between 2000 and 2015 in apparently healthy participants at high-altitude and low altitude. Twelve high-altitude studies comprising 834 participants and 18 low-altitude studies (710 participants) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The combined mean systolic PAP (right ventricular-to-right atrial pressure gradient) at high altitude [25.3 mmHg, 95% confidence interval (CI) 24.0, 26.7], as expected was significantly (P < 0.001) higher than at low altitude (18.4 mmHg, 95% CI 17.1,19.7), and arterial oxygen saturation was significantly lower (90.4%, 95% CI 89.3, 91.5) than at low altitude (98.1%; 95% CI 97.7, 98.4). 2) the second systematic review and meta analysis was until 2018 in CMS patients at rest and during mild exercise. Nine studies comprising 287 participants fulfilled the inclusion criteria. At rest, the point estimate from meta-analysis of the mean systolic PAP was 27.9 mmHg (95% CI 26.3-29.6 mmHg). These values are 11% (+2.7 mmHg) higher than in apparently healthy high-altitude dwellers. During mild exercise (50 W) the difference in mean systolic PAP between patients and high-altitude dwellers was markedly more accentuated (48.3 versus 36.3 mmHg) than at rest. These findings indicate that at an altitude where the very large majority of high-altitude populations are living, pulmonary hypertension appears to be rare. However this is not the case in CMS patients in which sPAP was markedly increased at rest, getting even higher during mild exercise, comparable with daily activities. Submission: For oral presentation Topic: IV Environment and human health

T O P I C 5

Improving the VAO Infrastructure

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

IMPLEMENTING “OPERATING ON DEMAND” INFRASTRUCTURE –

FIRST STEPS INTEGRATING FAIM AND GRIPS INSTRUMENTS

O. Goussev and P. Hannawald German Aerospace Center (DLR), Earth Observation Center, Weßling, Germany

oleg.goussev@dlr.de, patrick.hannawald@dlr.de

ABSTRACT The “Alpine Environmental Data Analysis Center” project plan considers an implementation of the event-driven and scheduled operation scenarios for the remote scientific instruments (Operating on Demand, OoD). German Aerospace Center (DLR) is working on one of the research pilots using 2D-controlled Fast Infrared Airglow Imager (FAIM) camera system (360° azimuthal and 20°-90° elevation angle ranges). Application profiles include 1) fully automatic operation based on the instrument location and solar zenith angle (nighttime-only), 2) changing the scan parameters based on the external input events, 3) tracking an external space object path based on its Keplerian orbital elements and limb/swath measurement mode (satellite validation). In this talk we are presenting the first results on hardware operation, control software implementation, integration of the application profiles into AlpEnDAC portal and outline the further development tasks: user- and group-based scheduling priorities, monitoring and interrupt actions needed for the real-time operation.

ILLUSTRATION

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE GLACIOLOGICAL MONITORING AT PASTERZE

AND THE GLACIERS AROUND MT. SONNBLICK

Marion Greilinger*,1, Daniel Binder1, Lucia Felbauer1, Bernhard Hynek1, Anton Neureiter1,

Stefan Reisenhofer1, Wolfgang Schöner², Gernot Weyss1

1 Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), Wien, Österreich

2 Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Graz, Österreich

*Corresponding author: marion.greilinger@zamg.ac.at

ABSTRACT

Glacier shrinkage is one of the most visible consequences of climate change in Austria today.

For the glaciers in the area of Mount Sonnblick as well as at the Pasterze, the ZAMG operates

a comprehensive glacio-hydrological monitoring, which includes the measurement of snow

depth and snow cover, glacier length changes, glacier mass balances, ice flow velocity and ice

thickness, a showcase project for a standardized Cryosphere monitoring in WMO's Global

Cryosphere Watch Program (www.globalcryopsherewatch.org). Besides direct field

measurements, a permanent infrastructure including automatic weather and mass balance

stations together with a network of automated cameras is operated to monitor all these

parameters. Besides a long-term dataset is generated that constantly expands the understanding

of the process and model concepts of the interaction between climate and glaciers and the

impact on mountain hydrology in general.

Besides the monitoring and visualization of the current changes of the glaciers (changes in

length and surface), the photos of the automatic cameras are primarily used to better record the

spatial distribution of the snow cover and the melting in order to calculate volume and surface

differences and to increase the accuracy of the glacier increase annual mass balance

measurements. Other applications include the calculation of flow velocities, the monitoring of

peri-or proglacial phenomena such as the glacier lake Goldbergkees and its outbreaks or the

monitoring of avalanches and other spatial highly variable accumulation processes.

The glacier monitoring in the area of Mount Sonnblick and the Pasterze as well as some results

of the long-term monitoring are presented.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Figure 1: Glaciological monitoring network at Pasterze including automated cameras, an

energy-mass-balance station (EMBS, see picture on the right) and a mass-balance stations

(MBS)

Harmonizing access and processing of EO data: an example from the H2020 openEO project

Session V: Improving the VAO Infrastructure

Preference: Oral Presentation

With the opening of global archives of Earth Observation data streams from satellites we have arrived at a richness of operationally available observations over the whole globe, starting from the Landsat series of satellites and now the plethora of available data coming through Copernicus and its series of Sentinel satellites, that has never been available before. This created huge opportunities for research and businesses, being able to exploit the temporal domain of those observations in a powerful manner, but also poses challenges in terms of data management and processing capacities. As a consequence, a growing number of cloud services and customized solutions in various research centres have been developed, leading to processing workflows optimized for specific system architectures and back-end infrastructures. As such this is limiting portability and reproducibility of workflows across back-ends, both for science and business applications.

OpenEO, a Horizon 2020 project (grant 776242), addresses this problem by defining an API between service provider back-ends and client applications. This API can be seen as a common language that defines interfaces for finding, accessing, processing and retrieving data, and only requires that a back-end architecture specific driver and corresponding client libraries are used when defining the workflows. The project however does not stop at simply defining an API, but also provides implementations for a number of different back-end solutions, ranging from a file-based storage system with processes running in individual containers, over data cubes exposed via OGC web services to GRASS GIS. On the client side, libraries are developed in python, R and javascript, leaving space to develop applications based on Earth Observations with very different requirements, from web visualization to extensive time series analysis in a research setting. In addition to a large set of simple processes, user-defined functions allow users to submit more complicated processes as python or R code, e.g. for dedicated time series models, to be run on the imagery data.

This presentation will show explain the basic concept of the API and show some examples of the usage of the API in typical earth observation use cases.

ALPCLIMNET: A NETWORK FOR CLIMATE PROTECTION IN THE ALPINE SPACE

Elena Kalusche1,2, Michael Bittner1,2

1) Universität Augsburg, Institut für Physik, Augsburg, Germany

2) Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Deutsches Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum, Weßling, Germany

elena.kalusche@physik.uni-augsburg.de

ABSTRACT The consequences of climate change are associated with great uncertainties, especially in the Alps (e.g. KLIWA, 2016). The study of the causes and the estimation of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, extreme heat, humidity or air pollution are extremely relevant to society. They depend largely on the availability of reliable climate and environmental data. Taking into account as many relevant measurements as possible in the region of consideration is therefore of utmost importance for the assessment of the current state of climate change and the assessment of climate-related risks. The major objective of AlpClimNet is to support ARGE ALP in climate protection measures by improved observation and analysis of environmental and climate parameters. In particular, AlpClimNet aims to increase the amount of climate-relevant data available in the Virtual Alpine Observatory (VAO) for the ARGE ALP regions, in order to provide a better basis for supporting policies on regional climate protection measures.

Figure 1: Overview of the structure of the project

Data from the ARGE ALP regions that were not yet available via the VAO were identified and linked to the VAO's IT-infrastructure "AlpEnDAC" (Alpine Environmental Data Analysis Center - www.alpendac.eu) in coordination with the respective data providers and owners. The AlpEnDAC is a state-of-the-art IT-infrastructure and ensures that measurements carried out at various locations within the VAO are made conveniently searchable, accessible and interoperable ("data-on-demand"). To explore and visualize the data in the ARGE-ALP regions, the "AlpClimNet Data Browser" has been developed based on the technical functionalities of the AlpEnDAC. The data of any station can now be visualized as a time series or as a histogram (frequency distribution) and compared with other stations, with the functionality being continuously expanded. The time series partly comprise more than 100 years of data. Analysis methods are currently being developed to examine and visualize changes and relationships in the climate and environmental data like air temperature and carbon dioxide. In order to examine the climate data for changes, various established time series analysis methods are being implemented. To analyze variability and trends, the statistical component model from Weatherhead et al. (1998) is used. Climate change in the Alps is manifested not only in long-term changes (trends) but also in the increase in extremes. According to the latest predictions, hot days occur increasingly, while frost days and cold stress decrease and the snowline increases (generally speaking). Drier and warmer climates (as predicted for Bavaria, for example) also lead to an increase in ozone and particulate matter pollution. The current daily situation of climate parameters - including 48 hour forecasts - is now available via AlpEnDAC. The climate parameters for the Alpine region are shown aggregated at NUTS3 level (Bavaria: Landkreise, Austria: Bezirke, Switzerland: Kantone, Italy: province) and include the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI, heat and cold stress), the concentrations of ground-level ozone, particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, as well as the climate parameters air temperature, air humidity, precipitation, boundary layer height and wind speed.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

ALPENDAC – THE ALPINE ENVIRONMENTAL DATA ANALYSIS CENTRE

D. Laux1,O. Goussev2, J. Handschuh1,2, S.Wüst2, M. Bittner1,2, A. Götz3, H. Heller3, J. Munke3, R. Mair4, B. Wittmann4, T. Rehm5, I. Beck5, M. Neumann5

1University of Augsburg, Institute of Physics, Augsburg, Germany

2German Aerospace Center (DLR), Earth Observation Center, Weßling, Germany 3Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences & Humanities,

Garching b. München, Germany 4bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH, Augsburg, Germany

5Environment Research Station Schneefernerhaus (UFS), Garmisch, Germany

dominik.laux@dlr.de, alexander.goetz@lrz.de,

ABSTRACT The Alpine Environmental Data Analysis Centre (AlpEnDAC) is a research data management and analysis platform for research facilities around the Alps and similar mountain ranges. It provides the computational infrastructure for the Virtual Alpine Observatory (VAO). Within the scope of previous work, the platform was developed with the focus on research data and metadata management as well as analysis and simulation tools. It offers the possibility to store and retrieve data securely (data-on-demand), to share it with other scientists and to interpret it with the help of computing-on-demand solutions via a user friendly web-based graphical user interface. The AlpEnDAC allows the analysis and consolidation of heterogeneous data sets from ground-based to satellite instruments. In a further development phase, launched on 1 August 2019, the existing services of the AlpEnDAC will be supplemented by new components in the fields of user support and quality assurance. Furthermore, the modelling and analysis software portfolio will be extended, focusing on the development of innovative services in the fields of service-on-demand and operating-on-demand as well as the integration of new data sources and measurement instruments. The AlpEnDAC helps environmental scientists to benefit from modern data management, data analysis, and simulation techniques. The VAO network, now including ten countries (Austria, France, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic) is an ideal and exciting context for developing the AlpEnDAC with researchers. This project receives funding from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

FRACTIONATION FOR OXYGEN AT GAS INTAKE LINE

Markus C. Leuenberger, Michael F. Schibig, Peter Nyfeler

Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate

Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland

Markus.Leuenberger@climate.unibe.ch, Michael.Schibig@climate.unibe.ch,

Peter.Nyfeler@climate.unibe.ch

ABSTRACT

A common heated inlet for diverse gas species determination is being used at the High Altitude Research Station

Jungfraujoch by several research groups. About three years ago we noticed a significant increase of oxygen

spikes. At first we could not assign it to a particular process, since there are many critical issues involved in

determining oxygen with highest precision. After checking all the obvious potential sources including evaluation

issues, leaks in lines, connections and valves, we –by chance – figured out an excellent correlation between

oxygen spikes and inlet temperature variations.

The inlet system consists of a massive vertical metal tube of 90 mm inner diameter with a length of about three

meters. It has a high air throughput of 60 m3 per hour, which is why we did not specifically pay attention to the

sub-sampling for our measurement device. From these 60 m3 per hour – corresponding to a mean transfer

velocity of 0.5 meters per second – we sample only 12 l per hour through a horizontally connected tube. Up to

the end of 2015, we have not seen indications of fractionations associated with the inlet system. This changed

obviously when the heating regulation of the inlet system stopped working properly. Yet, this was figured out

only through strange oxygen spikes in our measurements.

Today, we can explain these deviations by temperature change induced oxygen to nitrogen fractionation close to

the inlet tube wall. The heavier molecule (oxygen) migrates towards the colder end, which in our case is the

inner part of the vertical tube, whose temperature is dominated by the high-volume flow of cold Jungfraujoch air.

The temperature at the tube wall mirrors the heating cycles with sharp temperature increases and slow

adjustments to the equilibrium temperature with a frequency of about one hour (variable). These heating cycles

migrate only about one millimeter into the inner part of the high gas flow and therefore influence only the air

close to the wall. Since sample gas is diverted by a horizontal tube with a low flow, we sample preferentially gas

flowing along the wall that is influenced by these temperature spikes. The fractionation is fully developed during

the temperature equilibrium state whereas it is destroyed when the strong heating takes place (higher local

velocities of the air molecules which lead to an improved mixing). Figure 1 shows this behavior based on an

experiment in which we placed a capillary, slightly bended at the end, through the horizontal tube into the center

of the vertical high volume-flow tube. The values measured with this capillary show no temperature influence

anymore, nor is it dependent how the end of the capillary is oriented (towards, perpendicular or opposite to the

high-flow direction). These measurements highlight the importance of an aspirated intake and the placement of

the sub-sampling line, especially when working in a low-flow regime. This effect can be reduced significantly

when the sub-sampling is done with moderate to high flow rates or by sampling air from the inner part of the

high-flow system.

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

Figure 1: O2/N2 measurements up to 2 pm were done with the capillary placed in the center of inlet (yellow:

opening upwards, into the flow; green: opening perpendicular to gas flow in north direction; blue: opening

downwards, away from the flow; orange: opening perpendicular to gas flow in south direction), black dots

represent measurements without the capillary (usual setup), the red line represents the temperature of the inlet

system with the scale on the secondary y-axis.

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS

oral presentation.

topic V. Infrastructure and technology for environmental / high altitude research

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

FLASK SAMPLING PROGRAM AT JUNGFRAUJOCH

Michael F. Schibig, Markus Leuenberger, Peter Nyfeler

Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate

Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland

Michael.Schibig@climate.unibe.ch, Markus.Leuenberger@climate.unibe.ch,

Peter.Nyfeler@climate.unibe.ch

ABSTRACT

At the end of 2000, the University of Bern started to monitor the atmospheric gas composition at the high

altitude research station Jungfraujoch by means of flask sampling. The samples are measured first on an isotope

ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) with customized inlet system to determine the amount of CO2 as well as the

elemental ratios of δO2/N2 and δAr/N2. On a second IRMS, which is coupled to a gas chromatograph, the

isotopic ratios of δ13C of CO2, δ18O of CO2 and d13C of CH4 are measured. In 2007, a flask comparison program

was started in which every second week not only flasks from the University of Bern, but also from the

University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and the Max-Planck Institute in Jena (Germany) were filled with

ambient air at Jungfraujoch. The comparison showed, that there were issues with the compatibility of the

measurements between the different groups which were to some degree caused by different sampling techniques

and types of flasks used (van der Laan et al., 2013).

To improve the compatibility of data series an European-wide infrastructure network, called ICOS (Integrated

Carbon Observation System), was established in 2015. This includes given sampling and evaluation protocols

for continuous as well as flask based sampling. The latter is being undertaken at most ICOS sites by means of a

new automated flask sampling unit developed at MPI Jena (Germany), called ICOS Flask Sampler. All flasks are

sent to the Central Analytical Laboratory (ICOS-CAL) at MPI Jena for analysis. The flask sampler dedicated for

Jungfraujoch is currently being tested at the University of Bern, this includes the well-functioning of the

hardware as well as different sampling methods. The talk will present the outcomes of these tests. It is

anticipated that the flask sampler will be deployed at Jungfraujoch in spring 2020.

ILLUSTRATIONS, GRAPHS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Figure 1: Left, image of the ICOS Flask Sampler (www.icos-cal.eu); Right: Test measurements of eight flasks

sampled with different ports and methods at the University of Bern.

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS

oral presentation

topic V. Infrastructure and technology for environmental / high altitude research

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

REFERENCES

van der Laan-Luijkx, I. T., van der Laan, S., Uglietti, C., Schibig, M. F., Neubert, R. E. M., Meijer, H. A. J.,

Brand, W. A., Jordan, A., Richter, J. M., Rothe, M. and Leuenberger, M. C. (2013): Atmospheric CO2, δ(O2/N2)

and δ13CO2 measurements at Jungfraujoch, Switzerland: results from a flask sampling intercomparison program,

Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 1805-1815.

www.icos-cal.eu, last accessed at 20.12.2019

Authors: Carolina Adler (Mountain Research Initiative), Elisa Palazzi (ISAC - CNR), Aino Kulonen (Mountain Research Initiative) Topic: Improving the infrastructure Title: GEO GNOME – Global Network for Observations and Information in Mountain Environments Abstract: The Group on Earth Observations Global Network for Observations and Information in Mountain Environments (GEO GNOME) is a GEO Work Programme Initiative that seeks to connect and facilitate access to diverse sources of mountain observation data and information regarding drivers, conditions, and trends in biophysical and socio-economic processes of change at different scales. Mountains are globally distributed environments producing significant societal benefits. The ability of mountain regions to provide goods and services to both highland and lowland residents is seriously threatened by climatic and environmental changes, large-scale political and socio-economic transformations, unsustainable management of natural resources and serious gaps in the understanding of mountain systems. Decisions on policy and investment, from the level of local governments to international agencies, must be based on information and knowledge that reflect both the generalities and specificities of mountain regions. In addition, decision makers must confront the paucity of observations in high-altitude regions and the relatively poor level of understanding of mountain social-ecological systems. GEO-GNOME aims to address the paucity of observation data and information on mountains. GEO-GNOME is working on compiling and providing data, both related to historical conditions and to future projections that support examination of the drivers, conditions and trends at a variety of different scales, from that of a single mountain range to that of the planet as a whole. GEO-GNOME will improve our understanding of mountain regions and therefore sharpen our ability to provide policy and investment relevant advice, particularly in the context of key global policy agendas and their information and knowledge needs, such as monitoring and reporting for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in-line with GEO’s strategic priority engagement and societal benefit areas. GEO-GNOME will create a capacity to combine data and information to meet these emerging policy information needs.

Fifth VAO Symposium in Bern, 2020

FROM DATA TO KNOWLEDGE –

A STREAM PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE FOR THE ALPENDAC PLATFORM TO TRIGGER COMPUTING AND MEASUREMENT OPERATIONS

J. Munke1, A. Götz1, H. Heller1, S. Hachinger1, D. Laux2, O. Goussev3, J. Handschuh2,3,

S.Wüst3, M. Bittner2,3, R. Mair4, B. Wittmann4, T. Rehm5, I. Beck5, M. Neumann5

1Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences & Humanities, Garching b. München, Germany

2University of Augsburg, Institute of Physics, Augsburg, Germany 3German Aerospace Center (DLR), Earth Observation Center, Weßling, Germany

4bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH, Augsburg, Germany 5Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (UFS), Garmisch, Germany

johannes.munke@lrz.de, alexander.goetz@lrz.de

POSTER in V. INFRASTRUCTURE

ABSTRACT

The AlpEnDAC (Alpine Environmental Data Analysis Center – www.alpendac.eu) is a platform with the aim of bringing together scientific data measured on high-altitude research stations from the alpine region and beyond. It provides research data management, analysis and simulation services and supports the research activities of the VAO (Virtual Alpine Observatory) community. In 2019, a new development cycle of the platform was launched with funding from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection. Novel components for Computing on Demand (CoD) and Service on Demand (SoD) are integrated into the system. These will help to implement a near-real-time (NRT) decision support for the scientist during measurement processes. In this work, the authors present a stream processing architecture to couple the new CoD and SoD components. Data from measurements (or also simulations) are normally ingested via a representational state transfer application programming interface (REST API) into the AlpEnDAC system. Before such data are stored in the data base, they will be run through a central stream processing engine, based on a message queue (e.g. Apache Kafka) and a series of specialized workers to process the data. A rule engine and analytics tools are connected to this engine and allow the automatic triggering of, e.g., HPC simulations or evaluation and notification services in NRT. The services will be usable and configurable, as much as possible, via the AlpEnDAC web portal. With these developments, we want to make environmental scientists profit from NRT data collection and processing, as it is already an everyday tool e.g. in the Internet-of-Things sector and in commercial applications.

ILLUSTRATION

VAO-II Virtuelles AlpenobservatoriumVAO Virtual Alpine Observatory

Contact

Johannes Munkejohannes.munke@lrz.de

Alexander Götzalexander.goetz@lrz.de

Virtual Alpine ObservatoryTopic: Infrastructure

J. Munke1, A. Götz1, H. Heller1, S. Hachinger1, D. Laux2, O. Goussev3, J. Handschuh2,3,S.Wüst3, M. Bittner2,3, R. Mair4, B. Wittmann4, T. Rehm5, I. Beck5, M. Neumann51Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), 2University of Augsburg, 3German Aerospace Center (DLR), 4bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH, 5Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (UFS)

FROM DATA TO KNOWLEDGEA STREAM PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE FOR THE ALPENDAC PLATFORM TO TRIGGER COMPUTING AND MEASUREMENT OPERATIONS Your logo

The Alpine Environmental Data Analysis Center (AlpEnDAC)platform (www.alpendac.eu) with the aim of bringing togetherscientific data measured on high-altitude research stations fromthe alpine region and beyond. It provides research datamanagement, analysis and simulation services and supportsthe research activities of the VAO (Virtual Alpine Observatory)community. With some new developments, we want to makeenvironmental scientists profit from near-real-time (NRT) datacollection and processing, as it is already an everyday tool e.g.in the Internet-of-Things sector and in commercial applications.

The system will be extended by a Stream ProcessingArchitecture consisting of novel components for Computing onDemand (CoD) and Service on Demand (SoD). These will help toimplement a NRT decision support for the scientist duringmeasurement processes. Fig. 1 shows an overview of the dataflow within AlpEnDAC. A more detailed view of the StreamProcessing Engine is outlined in Fig. 2.

Data are ingested into the system via a Representational StateTransfer Application Programming Interface (REST API) or theAlpEnDAC web portal. The API will be written in Python using theFlask microframework. The data is stored in a PostgreSQLdatabase as well as analyzed. This is implemented by ApacheKafka message queues. Based on user preferences and with aseries of specialized workers jobs are published in thecorresponding message queue to make use of the CoD and SoDservices. This allows the automatic triggering of cloudcomputing simulations [simulations on the LRZ computecloud] or evaluation and notification services in NRT.

Acknowledgement:

Figure 1. Overview of the new architecture of the AlpEnDAC system.

Figure 2. Detailed view of the Stream Processing Architecture.