Meteorological data are indispensable for understanding ecological relationships in forests. The standardised weather stations meet the requirements of MeteoSwiss, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and of ICP Forests, an international programme on air pollution and its effects on forests.
Each LWF site includes two weather stations: one under forest cover and one nearby in the open field. These data allow us to investigate climatic issues as well as the relationships between processes inside and outside the forest.
Main objectives of meteorological measurements
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To secure long-time series of the most important meteorological parameters: air temperature, precipitation (rain gauge), wind speed (anemometer), wind direction (wind vane), relative humidity, global radiation (pyranometer), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR sensor) and UVB radiation (ultraviolet spectrum B).
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To provide a high-quality data basis for further LWF research projects.
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To provide validated data via the MeteoSwiss data portal for research and the general public.
The LWF programme periodically calibrates all sensors, and archives their metadata in the LWF database (51). The open architecture of the data acquisition and of the database allows to connect new digital measuring campaigns to the existing system of meteorological measuring stations.
