Zugspitze weather station and Schneefernerhaus research station

A winter alone on the summit

The meteorological station on the Zugspitze, at 2,962 metres, was inaugurated on 19 July 1900. Josef Enzensperger, a young meteorologist from Munich, wintered alone as the first observer, taking readings in a hut under deep snow. He later joined the German Antarctic expedition under Erich von Drygalski, wintering on Kerguelen, where he died in 1903.

The record is almost unbroken. The main gap came in 1945, when the summit was a military restricted area for three months.

From hotel to research station

Schneefernerhaus, on the Zugspitzplatt just below the summit at about 2,650 metres, opened in 1931 as a hotel. The hotel and restaurant closed in 1992, and in 1996 the building reopened as an environmental research station. Today a consortium of research institutions uses the building for work on the atmosphere, climate, snow and glaciers, cosmic radiation and health at altitude.

The Deutscher Wetterdienst and the German Environment Agency (UBA) run the measurement programmes, including those of the Global Atmosphere Watch station Zugspitze/Hohenpeißenberg.

What the sites measure

The summit sensors record temperature, pressure, wind, humidity and radiation for the climate record, and the Schneefernerhaus laboratories measure carbon dioxide, ozone, aerosols and trace gases in the free troposphere. Together, the two stations provide a reference for how alpine climate has changed since 1900, including the retreat of the glaciers that surround them.

Two stations, two eras

The summit station and the Schneefernerhaus laboratory are different kinds of observatory. One is a single-purpose weather station with a century of continuous observation; the other is a shared laboratory that hosts instruments from many institutions and changes with the questions asked of it. Together they show how an observatory can renew itself without losing its record: the old station provides continuity, and the new one provides capability. The cost is that the two must be kept consistent, which means careful cross-calibration of what they measure in common, such as temperature and ozone. A practical benefit of the arrangement is that a researcher can compare a century of weather at the top with the chemistry measured a few hundred metres below, in the same air, and ask whether a change in one is seen in the other.

Instruments and technologies

• Summit weather station Standard meteorological sensors with winter-proof exposure, replaced with automatic instruments in later decades but continued in parallel with manual readings.
• Trace-gas laboratory Air is drawn from the summit through sampling lines to analysers in the research station.
• Aerosol and radiation instruments Particle counters and radiometers measure aerosol load and radiation.

The people

• Josef Enzensperger Meteorologist; first winter observer on the Zugspitze in 1900.

Timeline

• 1900 Meteorological station inaugurated on 19 July; Josef Enzensperger winters alone as first observer.
• 1931 Schneefernerhaus opens as a hotel.
• 1945 Summit becomes a military restricted area for three months, the main gap in the record.
• 1992 Hotel and restaurant close.
• 1996 Schneefernerhaus reopens as an environmental research station.

Key lessons for observation today

• Reuse existing buildings, with new instruments A former hotel became a research station. Re-using a site with power and access is often cheaper than building a new one.
• Keep the long series continuous The 1945 gap is the exception that proves the care taken. Gaps need to be recorded with their reason.
• Share one site among many institutions A consortium runs the station. Shared sites need a clear data policy and common standards.

Sources

• Schneefernerhaus, Deutscher Wetterdienst
• Wikipedia, Schneefernerhaus
• Deutsche Biographie, Enzensperger, Josef