International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch + Gornergrat Activity Report 2002 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 2003 International Foundation HFSJG Annual Report 2002 Table of contents Message of the President.............................................................................................. i Report of the Director .................................................................................................. iii In Memoriam Hermann Debrunner........................................................................... xiii High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch Statistics on research days 2002 ......................................................................... 1 Long-term experiments and automatic measurements ....................................... 3 Activity reports: High resolution, solar infrared Fourier Transform Spectrometry (Institute of Astrophyiscs and Geophysics, Université de Liège, Belgium) ................................................ 5 Study of the atmospheric aerosols, water vapor and temperature by LIDAR (EPFL, Switzerland)............................................... 11 Global Atmosphere Watch Radiation Measurements (MeteoSwiss, Switzerland)........................................................................... 17 Photovoltaic Plant Jungfraujoch (Hochschule für Technik und Architektur, Switzerland) ...................................................................... 23 Monitoring of halogenated greenhouse gases (EMPA, Switzerland) ................................................................................... 31 NABEL: National Air Pollution Monitoring Network (EMPA, Switzerland) ................................................................................... 35 The Global Atmosphere Watch Aerosol Program at the Jungfraujoch (Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland).............................................................. 37 Solar UV irradiance (Institut für Medizinische Physik, Universität Innsbruck, Austria) .................................................................... 43 Micowave remote sensing of the middle atmosphere (Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern, Switzerland) ................................. 45 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) ..................................................................... 51 14 Long-term observations of CO2 at Jungfraujoch, (Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg, Germany) ................................ 55 Measurement and modelling of rock-surface temperatures in steep alpine rock faces (University of Zürich, Switzerland) ........................ 59 Forecasting the time of breaking off of large ice masses from hanging glaciers (Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland) .............. 61 Solar and terrestrial radiation measurements (Physikalisch-Meteotologisches 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 International Foundation HFSJG Annual Report 2002 Applied physiology: Physiological responses to high altitude exposure (Physiologisches Institut, Universität Zürich, Switzerland).......... 71 Physiological observation on high altitude adaptation, (Departement Medizin, Universität Fribourg, Switzerland)......................... 73 Free Tropospheric Experiment 2002 (FREETEX 02): Study of non-methane hydrocarbons in the free troposphere using gas chromatography (University of Leeds, UK)................................................. 75 Atmospheric physics and chemistry (Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy BIRA-IASB, Belgium) ............................................................... 81 Cosmic ray induced failures in biased high power semiconductor devices (ABB Switzerland Ltd., Semiconductors, Switzerland).................. 85 Study of the influence of cosmic rays on the reliability of solid-state image sensors (DALSA, The Netherlands)................................. 89 RADAIR: An Automatic Network for Air Radioactivity Monitoring (Bundesamt für Gesundheit, Switzerland) ................................ 91 Neutron Monitors – Study of solar and galactic cosmic rays (Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Switzerland) .............................. 95 85Kr activity determination in tropospheric air (Climate and Environmental Physics, Universität Bern, Switzerland) .............................. 99 Palaeo atmospheric chemistry studies using high-altitude glacier ice cores and show samples (Labor für Radio- und Umwelt Chemie der Universität Bern und des Paul Scherrer Instituts, Switzerland) ............. 103 High Altitude Research Station Gornergrat KOSMA - Kölner Observatorium für Submm-Astronomie (I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Germany) .......................... 105 Solar Sub-Millimeter Flare Observations with KOSMA (Institute of Applied Physics, Universität Bern, Switzerland) ..................... 109 TIRGO (Istituto di Radioastronomia, sezione di Firenze, Italy) .................. 111 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) ............. 113 The International Foundation HFSJG in the news ................................................... 117 Publications ................................................................................................................... 119 Index of research groups / institutes ........................................................................... 129 Index of projects ........................................................................................................... 131 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 133 International Foundation HFSJG Activity Report 2002 Message of the President The report period of the International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat (HFSJG) was saddened by the death of its Honorary President, Professor Hermann Debrunner, who died on July 6, 2002. As an active President of the Foundation and Director of the scientific stations for almost three decades he became the heart and the soul of the HFSJG. If the Foundation continues to flourish it is only due to his foresight with which he has prepared and paved the way for his successors. We all have lost in him a great leader, a prolific scientist, and a wonderful friend. The success of the International Foundation HFSJG is measured by the extent to which its research stations are used. According to this criterion the year 2002 has been successful. The research stations at Jungfraujoch as well as Gornergrat worked under the able and devoted directorship of Professor Erwin Flückiger near their upper capacity. The prospects for 2003, the 73rd year of the Foundation, are equally promising. Of course, the next question is the importance of the scientific results. Excellent research has been done indeed and long-time monitoring campaigns – some of them the longest in the world – have been continued. But the Foundation faces an inherent difficulty in documenting the ‘product’ of all these research activities. The results are the property of the individual scientists and groups and are disseminated by them. Yet it becomes increasingly necessary to give a global view of what has been achieved. As an answer to this need the reader will find in the following pages more information on scientific results than in the past. It goes without saying that it is impossible to attain completeness. Only some highlights are described as far as space allows. But over the years the Activity Reports should give a fair overview of what has been accomplished. In addition a first refereeing process, which will be repeated in the future, has proven not only to be very helpful but in this case to be most encouraging. It has also been decided to organize workshops every two or three years on special topics relevant for the research stations. A first such workshop was organized by two Commissions of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, i.e. the ‘Commission Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics’ under its President, PD Dr. U. Baltensperger, and the ‘Commission High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch’. The workshop under the title ‘Atmospheric Research at the Jungfraujoch and in the Alps’ was held with international participation in Davos on September 20, 2002. The next workshop on an astronomical topic will be organized in Zermatt in 2003 by the University of Cologne and co-sponsored by the Foundation. The very substantial Swiss contribution to the HFSJG is paid by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Its continued support also during a difficult period is gratefully acknowledged as well as the help