Erstes Gebirgsmeteorologisches Praktikum am Schneefernerhaus

From 10 to 14 August 2026, the first mountain meteorology hands-on course for Master’s students in meteorology took place at the Schneefernerhaus Environmental Research Station (UFS, www.schneefernerhaus.de). Over the course of a week, nine students studied specific mountain meteorological phenomena such as thermal circulation patterns, radiation balance and remote sensing of clouds, water vapour and aerosols.

The students had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with various modern remote sensing sensors, such as microwave radiometers, cloud radar, laser ceilometers and net radiation balance stations. These instruments have been operated at the UFS for more than a decade by LMU (https://www.meteo.physik.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/atmo_fern/index.html) in collaboration with the DLR (https://www.dlr.de/ de/pa), the University of Cologne (https://geomet.uni-koeln.de) and the German Weather Service to investigate the properties and long-term changes in clouds, precipitation, aerosols and water vapour (see overview in https://doi.org/10.1127/metz/2021/1099).

The students compared the observations – which are generally purely vertical – with satellite data from the new Meteosat Third Generation satellite. In doing so, they analysed the typical strengths (e.g. spatial coverage) as well as the weaknesses (e.g. limited resolution) of the satellite data in relation to cloud observations in mountainous areas. In other groups, the students compared remote sensing observations with observations they had carried out themselves by eye. The students identified typical diurnal circulation patterns in mountainous areas (e.g. slope and valley winds) with the help of nearby weather stations and the DWD’s NinJo WebTool, available at the MIM (https://www.dwd.de/DE/forschung/wettervorhersage/met_fachverfahren/met_arbeitsplatz/ninjo/ninjo_node.html). The NinJo system was also used to produce a forecast of daily weather developments for the UFS based on the ICON-D2 model forecasts.

As the surface radiation balance is crucial to the typical thermal circulation patterns in the mountains, particularly in summer, the students also carried out their own measurements using a net radiation balance station. To gain a better understanding of the effects of gases, aerosols, clouds and sloping surfaces on the radiation components, the students simulated the short- and long-wave radiation fluxes using the radiation transport model libRadtran developed at MIM (www.libradtran.org).

During a guided tour of the UFS, the students were also able to find out about the various research activities taking place there. On the final day, we were also treated to an exclusive guided tour of the DWD weather station on the summit of the Zugspitze. Everyone involved would like to extend their warmest thanks to the UFS team for their excellent support, as always, and to the DWD for the fantastic guided tour of the weather station on the summit! Special thanks also go to Isabel Petit (DWD) for their assistance and for providing fascinating insights into the practical aspects of operational weather forecasting in mountainous regions.

There are plans to offer the Mountain Meteorology Placement as part of the Master’s degree programme in Meteorology every two years.