Sonnblick Observatory

Station name and owner

The Sonnblick Observatory is owned and managed by the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik.

Location

Sonnblick Observatory is located in the Austrian Central Alps at an elevation of 3100 m a.s.l. It is situated at the alpine main divide, which is a clear climatological border. It also lies in the “Nationalpark Hohe Tauern” which covers 1856 km2 of the Austrian Alps at the border between the provinces of Salzburg, Carinthia, and Tyrol. Nearest villages are Heiligenblut to the South (10 km away) and Rauris to the North (20 km away). One important reason for the establishment of the Sonnblick Observatory in 1886 was the available infrastructure from gold mining activities.

Climate data

Grey colours are WMO Climate Normals including maximum and minimum values. Blue colours are individual years.

Climate data for the stations where extracted via Copernicus Climate Data Store, from the global gridded reanalysis product: ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present. Description and source code: Roemer J.K. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214922 Data Source: Hersbach et al. 2023. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS), https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

Biodiversity and natural environment

The natural environment is high-alpine with year-round snow-cover, glaciers, and permafrost. Sonnblick region covers mountain ecosystems.

History and facilities

Sonnblick Observatory was built in 1886 at the summit of Sonnblick Mountain, motivated from the need for information on meteorology in higher altitudes of the atmosphere. Very soon other scientific disciplines became interested in the extreme location of the observatory, e.g. Nobel-prize winner V.F. Hess for his measurements of cosmic rays. In 1986, the observatory was rebuilt to a modern observatory with cable car access, electricity, and a large research platform. From that time onwards investigations on atmospheric chemistry became a new research field at Sonnblick. Today, Sonnblick is a station of interdisciplinary research covering the atmosphere, the cryosphere, the biosphere, the lithosphere, and the hydrosphere.

General research and databases

Research of Sonnblick is currently formulated in the research programme ENVISON. It covers three main topics (the atmo­sphere, the cryosphere, and the biosphere) in an extensive monitoring programme and with many research projects. Sonnblick is outstanding with respect to its long-term climate observations and studies on glacier changes. Thus, the impact of Climate Change on the cryosphere is a major research topic at Sonnblick. Since 1886, Sonnblick was also involved in many international projects on atmospheric chemistry and atmo­spheric physics. The research is described on www.sonnblick.net. Sonnblick Observatory cooperates with several Austrian and international universities/research institutions. Within the frame of the GAW-DACH cooperation, Sonnblick has a special partnership with the observatories Jungfraujoch (in Switzerland), Zugspitze and Hohenpeissenberg (both Germany) for common research on atmospheric processes and Climate Change (GAW: Global Atmosphere Watch in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: D-A-CH).

Link to data: https://dataportal.eu-interact.org/stations

Station Monitoring

• Climate
  • Meteorology
    • Air temperature
    • Air humidity
    • Air pressure
    • Wind velocity
    • Wind direction
    • Precipitation
  • Energy balance and radiation
    • Energy balance
    • Short wave incoming
    • Short wave outgoing
    • Long wave incoming
    • Long wave outgoing
    • Net radiation
    • UV-B
    • Cloud cover/hours of sunshine
• Geo
  • Geology/Geomorphology
    • Erosion
  • Geophysics and Geodesy
    • Seismic activity
  • Sub-surface characteristics
    • Active layer depth
    • Permafrost distribution
    • Permafrost thickness
    • Permafrost temperature
  • Snow characteristics
    • Snow depth
    • Snow cover
    • Snow density
  • Atmospheric composition
    • CO₂ concentration
    • CH₄ concentration
  • Pollution
    • In air
    • In water
    • In snow/ice
• Glacier
  • Glacier characteristics
    • Glacier area
    • Topography
    • Elevation change
    • Terminus position
    • Ice velocity
    • Ice thickness
    • Debris cover
    • Surface albedo/reflexion coefficient
  • Mass balace
    • Mass balance
    • Snow water equivalent
    • Snowcover stratigraphy
    • Equilibrium Line Altitude
    • Duration of snow cover
  • Climate
    • Climate measurements
    • Energy balance
  • Glacier hydrology
    • Run-off
    • Glacial lake outburst floods
  • Bio-geochemistry of snow, ice and water
    • Biogeochemistry of snow, ice and water  
  • Particles and aerosols
    • Particles and aerosols
  • Pollutants e.g. POPs and heavy metals in snow, ice and water
    • Pollutants e.g. POPs and heavy metals, in snow, ice and water
  • Isotope chemistry of snow, ice and water
    • Isotope chemistry of snow, ice and water
• Bio
  • Vegetation
    • Flowering phenology
    • Amount of flowering
    • Lichen community composition
    • Aerobiological monitoring (pollen, spores, etc.)
  • Arthropods
    • Insect herbivory
  • Birds
    • Abundance
    • Distribution
  • Mammals
    • Mammal abundance
    • Mammal distribution
  • Genetics
    • Collection of genetic material
  • Pollution
    • Pollution measurements in vegetation
    • Pollution measurements in mammals (body burdens, biomarkers)
  • Socio-ecological issues (disturbance)
    • Number of visitors
    • Aircraft activities

Human dimension

The nearest settlements are Rauris (c. 30 inhabitants) in the North and Heiligenblut, at the foot of Austria’s highest peak Großglockner (3798 m), in the South. Both villages are well known tourist centres for mountain-related summer and winter activities (all kind of skiing, hiking, climbing, cycling, etc.). The Valley of Rauris is the largest community of the Salzburg province, and has more than 420000 bed-nights related to tourism per year. Heiligenblut has 1090 inhabitants (January 2011) and is the end point of the Großglocker Hochalpenstraße (high alpine road).

Access

Access to Sonnblick Observatory is possible throughout the year either by cable car from the North (20 minutes trip from Rauris valley) or by hiking from Rauris valley from the north or from Heiligenblut from the south (about 5 hours hike from both sides). As Sonnblick is situated within the “Nationalpark Hohe Tauern” the use of helicopters is restricted. However, scientific activities usually will get permission for required helicopter flights. Because of its remote location in the Alps potential mountain hazards have to be considered during field work. Sonnblick Observatory is built together with an alpine hut “Zittelhaus” which offers additional accommodation and space.