Special measuring devices
MeteoSwiss has set up its own monitoring network for EMER-Met, which will be renewed over the next few years. It records the atmosphere above Switzerland's Mittelland region in detail, in particular in the direct vicinity of the Swiss nuclear power stations. The monitoring network comprises three different
Monitoring systems.
- At the sites in Schaffhausen, Payerne and Grenchen, remote sensing instruments – wind profilers, temperature radiometers soon also
wind profilers – continually measure the wind, temperature and humidity from
the ground up to an altitude of several kilometres. The wind profiler is a radar which measures the radial velocities along a sequence of vertical and four near-vertical beam pointing directions. On this basis, the horizontal wind speeds for all altitudes up to 8 kilometres above the ground can be calculated. The wind profiler is based on the same measuring principle but uses an eye-safe laser beam instead of a radar beam and measures the wind up to 2 km above ground with higher accuracy. The temperature radiometers derive the temperature from the intensity of the atmosphere's natural microwave radiation.
- High telecommunications towers stretching 100 to 250 metres above the ground and equipped with meteorological measuring devices are situated on the peaks of the Üetliberg, St. Chrischona, Bantiger and Stockeren.
- At the nuclear power plant sites, MeteoSwiss also measures turbulence in addition to the usual SwissMetNet parameters.
This special monitoring network is supplemented by the SwissMetNet ground-level monitoring network of MeteoSwiss, which comprehensively records the meteorological parameters close to ground level.