PIANO: Alpine Foehn Flux Station Data from Innsbruck, 2017

PIANO (Penetration and Interruption of Alpine Foehn) comprises meteorological and turbulence data from four flux stations operated during a 2017 field campaign in and around Innsbruck, Austria. The dataset provides near-surface turbulence observations, surface fluxes from eddy covariance, radiation and soil measurements, and meteorological information. Helen C. Ward from Universität Innsbruck authored this dataset, which covers the period from September to December 2017.

Use Cases

• Study the interaction between cold air pools and foehn winds based on the campaign's stated goal.
• Analyze mechanisms of foehn penetration to valley floors using multi-station turbulence and flux data.
• Model processes affecting the breakdown of foehn events based on near-surface meteorological observations.
• Compare urban and rural atmospheric fluxes using data from the long-term urban station and three grassland sites.

Strengths

• Data from four distinct flux stations (EC_South, EC_East, EC_West, EC_Centre) providing spatial coverage.
• Temporal coverage spans autumn and early winter 2017, with specific start and end dates provided for each station.
• Includes multiple data types: near-surface turbulence, surface fluxes, radiation, soil, and meteorological measurements.

Limitations

• Data availability has gaps due to documented issues like electrical interference, theft, and remote collection problems.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for some analyses.

Provenance

Source

Universität Innsbruck

Collection Method

Field campaign measurements using eddy covariance flux stations.

Time Range

September to December 2017

Geography

Innsbruck, Austria, specifically the Wipp Valley, Inn Valley, and Innsbruck city center.