A new permanent multi-parameter monitoring network in Central Asian high mountains – from measurements to data bases

Abstract

Abstract. Long-term monitoring of water resources and climate parameters at the scale of river basins requires networks of continuously operated in-situ stations. Since 2009, GFZ and CAIAG, in cooperation with the National Hydrometeorological Services (NHMS) of Central Asia, are establishing such a regional monitoring network in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and lately Afghanistan to collect observations of meteorological and hydrological parameters and to deliver them to the end-users for operational tasks and scientific studies. The newly developed and installed remotely operated multi-parameter stations (ROMPS) do not only monitor standard meteorological and hydrological parameters, but also deliver Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data for atmospheric sounding as well as tectonic studies. Additionally, three stations integrate seismic sensors for earthquake monitoring. The observational data from the ROMPS is transmitted nominally in near-real time, but at least once a day to a centralized geo-database infrastructure for long-term storage and data redistribution. Users can access the data manually using a web-interface or automatically using SOS requests; in addition, data is planed to be distributed to the NHMS through standard communication and data exchange channels.

Re-establishing glacier monitoring in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia

“…The meteorological station, installed in 2013, is situated at an altitude of 3300 m a.s.l. at a distance of 500 m away from the Golubin glacier (Schöne et al, 2013). Two further climate stations, Alplager and Baitik, are located in the Ala-Archa catchment at the altitudes of 2340 and 1580 m a.s.l., respectively.…”

“…within a distance of about 1 km from the glacier. The station records GPS position, air temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and shortwave incoming and outgoing radiation, as well as longwave incoming and outgoing radiation, soil water content and soil temperatures (Schöne et al, 2013). The historical and re-established mass balance networks are shown in Fig.…”

“…354 and one camera at the Barkrak Middle glacier. Every day, eight pictures are taken, transferred to a nearby CAWa meteorological station, and sent via satellite connection to a database (Schöne et al, 2013). For Glacier No.…”

“…These two stations were equipped with standard meteorological and ground sensors (see detailed description in Schöne et al, 2013 Salzmann et al, 2013;Schär et al, 2004;Schienmann et al, 2008;Schmidli et al, 2001). …”

Re-analysis of seasonal mass balance at Abramov glacier 1968–2014

“…Because of climate change and today's water stress, increased interest in re-establishing the historical glacier-monitoring sites in this region has emerged. The multinational cooperation projects Central Asian Water (CAWa) and Capacity Building and Twinning for Climate Observing Systems (CATCOS) include the installation of automatic weather stations (AWS) (Schöne and others, 2013), terrestrial cameras and the setting-up of a new glacier mass-balance monitoring programme at Abramov glacier (Barandun and others, 2013).…”