International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch + Gornergrat Activity Report 2003 International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch + Gornergrat Sidlerstrasse 5 CH-3012 Bern / Switzerland Telephone +41 (0)31 631 4052 Fax +41 (0)31 631 4405 URL: http://www.ifjungo.ch February 2004 International Foundation HFSJG Annual Report 2003 Table of contents Message of the President...................................................................................................... i Report of the Director .......................................................................................................... iii High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch Statistics on research days 2003 ............................................................................... 1 Long-term experiments and automatic measurements .......................................... 3 Activity reports: High resolution, solar infrared Fourier Transform Spectrometry, Application to the study of the Earth atmosphere (Institute of Astrophyiscs and Geophysics, Université de Liège, Belgium) .............................. 5 Study of the atmospheric aerosols, water vapor and temperature by LIDAR (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL, Switzerland) ................................................................................................ 9 Global Atmosphere Watch Radiation Measurements (MeteoSwiss, Payerne, Switzerland)............................................................................................. 15 Long-term energy yield and reliability of a high alpine PV photovoltaic plant at 3453 m (Berner Fachhochschule, Hochschule für Technik und Informatik HTI, Switzerland) .......................................................................... 19 Monitoring of halogenated greenhouse gases (EMPA, Switzerland)..................... 27 National Air Pollution Monitoring Network, NABEL, (EMPA, Switzerland) ...... 31 The Global Atmosphere Watch Aerosol Program at the Jungfraujoch (Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland) ....... 35 Solar UV irradiance (Institut für Medizinische Physik, Universität Innsbruck, Austria) .............................................................................. 43 Automated GPS Network in Switzerland AGNES, (Bundesamt für Landestopographie, Switzerland)...................................................................... 47 AEROCARB: Airborne European Regional Observations of the Carbon Balance (Climate and Environmental Physics, Universität Bern, Switzerland) ............................................................................... 53 14 Long-term observations of CO2 at Jungfraujoch (Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg, Germany) ................................................ 57 Rock-face temperature monitoring (Department of Geography, University of Zürich, Switzerland)......................................................................... 59 Permafrost temperature monitoring in alpine rock walls, (Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland) ...................................................... 61 Solar and atmospheric radiation measurements (Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center, Switzerland) ................................................................... 65 Operation of a 70 cm amateur beacon transmitter, operation of a 23 cm voice repeater station, study of high frequency propagation conditions (Relaisgemeinschaft HB9F Bern, Switzerland)...................................................... 69 Free Tropospheric Experiment 2003, FREETEX 03, (Department of Chemistry, University of York, School of Environment / Department of Chemistry, University of Leeds, UK)..................... 71 Atmospheric physics and chemistry, (Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy BIRA-IASB, Belgium) ......................................................................... 77 International Foundation HFSJG Annual Report 2003 Continuous aerosol radioactivity monitoring (Bundesamt für Gesundheit, Switzerland)........................................................................................ 81 85Kr activity determination in tropospheric air (Climate and Environmental Physics, Universität Bern, Switzerland) ........................................ 85 VITA Varves, Ice cores, and Tree rings – Archives with annual resolution (Labor für Radio- und Umwelt Chemie der Universität Bern und des Paul Scherrer Instituts, Switzerland) ................................................ 87 Sunphotometry at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI, De Bilt, and Kipp & Zonen B.V., Delft, The Netherlands).................................................. 91 Comparison of 2H, 3H and 18O in precipitation taken at the Sphinx station and in shallow ice cores taken at the Jungfraufirn, (Climate and Environmental Physics and Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Universität Bern, Switzerland) ................................................. 97 MATRAG – Modelling of Alpine Tropospheric Delay by Radiometers and GPS, (Institute of Geodesy, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Germany)....................................................................... 99 Swiss Alpine Airborne SAR-Experiment SASARE, (Remote Sensing Laboratories RSL, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland)......................................................................... 103 Neutron Monitors – Study of solar and galactic cosmic rays (Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Switzerland) ........................................ 109 Cosmic ray induced failures in biased high power semiconductor devices (ABB Switzerland Ltd., Semiconductors, Switzerland) ............................ 113 Comparison of lung volumes and impulse oscillometric lung function before and after short term high altitude exposure (Pneumologie, Medizinische Klinik Innenstadt, University of Munich, Germany) ....................... 115 The unusual weather conditions in 2003 (MeteoSchweiz Zürich, Switzerland) ..................................................................... 117 High Altitude Research Station Gornergrat Statistics on research days 2003 ............................................................................... 121 Activity reports: KOSMA - Kölner Observatorium für Submm-Astronomie (I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln; Radioastronomisches Institut, Universität Bonn Germany) ................................... 123 Solar Sub-Millimeter Flare Observations with KOSMA (Institute of Applied Physics, Universität Bern, Switzerland)................................ 127 Italian national infrared telescope TIRGO (CNR, Istituto di Radioastronomia, sezione di Firenze, Italy) ........................................................... 131 SONTEL - Solar Neutron Telescope for the identification and the study of high-energy neutrons produced in energetic eruptions at the Sun (Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Switzerland) ....................... 133 Research areas at the various European high mountain observatories ................... 139 Borovetz Memorandum of Understanding ..................................................................... 141 The International Foundation HFSJG in the news ....................................................... 145 Publications............................................................................................................................. 147 Index of research groups / institutes ................................................................................. 159 Index of projects .................................................................................................................... 161 Acknowledgements................................................................................................................ 165 International Foundation HFSJG Activity Report 2003 Message of the President The Activity Report of the International Foundation HFSJG is the report on another truly active year. A large number of scientists have collected meteorological, environmental, and astronomical data during a total of 1622 person-days and/or nights at the Research Stations on Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat. In addition a vast amount of data has been collected by automatic monitoring. This accumulated wealth of information has been laid down in 132 publications and six dissertations. Jungfraujoch is a key station for 13 national and international environmental network programs. The Foundation has co-sponsored an exceptionally well-attended international conference on “The Dense Interstellar Medium in Galaxies” in Zermatt. The Research Stations have attracted a large number of scientific and otherwise motivated visitors from all over Europe and beyond. Thus the Foundation has continued, and if anything, expanded its role as a virtual research institute. The bulk of the present Activity Report consists of the research results of 32 research groups. The Foundation is indebted to them for their excellent and punctual manuscripts. They make fascinating reading indeed. Very special thanks are due to the Director of the Research Stations, Professor Erwin Flückiger. His report on the following pages gives an idea of his countless and untiring activities towards successful operation of the stations. Without his deep involvement in all aspects the Foundation