Observational platforms

Meteorological research at Uppsala University have had a large focus on measurements from the atmospheric boundary layer and especially the layers closest to the Earth’s surface. Over the years several field stations have been established and utilized for longer-term measurements to study various types of landscape features such as agricultural areas, lakes and seas, apart from the measurements maintained in vicinity to Uppsala University Campus, which are more urban. The Celsius temperature record collected in Uppsala started in 1722 and is one of the world’s longest and can be read more about here.

There are three other main field measurement stations in use today by the Meteorology group in Uppsala:

Measurements are taken at Marsta field station located just north of Uppsala with mostly agricultural landscape surrounding the station since its establishment in the late 1940´s. The station both is and have been important as background rural measurements to the city of Uppsala and for various types of research conducted over the years.

To study air-lake interactions an instrumented tower at the Malma Island in the eastern part of the lake Erken (about 50 km east of Uppsala) is also operated by the Meteorology group in connection to the Erken laboratory run by the Department of Ecology and Genetics. The laboratory is also part of the Swedish National Infrastructure for Ecosystem Research, SITES.

In 1995 the Östergarnsholm field station was established on a small island located 2 nautical miles off the east coast of Gotland with an instrumented 30 m tower used for many types of atmospheric micrometeorological research and studies of atmosphere-wave-sea interactions and gas exchange. Since 2015 it is part of the European Research Infrastructure ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) to quantify and understand the greenhouse gas balance of the European continent and of adjacent regions.

Persons: Leonie Esters, Anna Rutgersson, Erik Sahlée, Johan Arnqvist

Last modified: 2021-01-22