Atmospheric Tower – history and basic information

Construction works in the area of the future station started in June 2012. The construction itself of 250 m high mast then started in August and it was managed to complete it by the end of the year. The construction was financed by the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovation within the project entitled  CzechGlobe, the beneficiary of which was the Global change research intitute, which is also the operator of the station.

The construction was preceded by a relatively long period of discussions about the appropriate location where the station should be located. From the outset, it was planned as the National Monitoring Point for the quantity and long-range transport of greenhouse gases. The decision was eventually made in favour of a location in proximity to the CHMI Košetice Meteorological Observatory which at that time already had a long time series of measurements of air pollution and meteorological data. On June 17, 2013, a ceremonial opening took place, when the research infrastructure was put into operation as the Atmospheric Station (AS) in Křešín near Pacov. The designation of Křešín near Pacov was chosen mainly because the site on which the station was built belongs to the cadastral scope of the Křešín municipality.

As mentioned earlier, the primary purpose of the station construction was the continuous monitoring of greenhouse gases concentrations in the air, especially in such a quality that the station could become a part of the  ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) international monitoring network. Already during the preparation of the mast project, some components, especially the construction elements, were modified so that the costly infrastructure would be suitable for a wider range of measurements. As a result, the monitoring of greenhouse gases concentrations could be extended from the start of operation of the station to monitor the amount of tropospheric ozone, elemental gaseous mercury, and measurements aimed at studying the physical and chemical properties of aerosols. The station has been involved in many other national and international projects over the years. One of the first was the ACTRIS project and its national component ACTRIS-CZ, in which GCRI cooperates with CHMI, ICPF and RECETOX. Measurements of the optical properties of aerosols started before the Křešín at Pacov AS was put into operation. The measuring instruments were initially placed in the AIM container operating within the Košetice observatory. The Atmospheric Station and the Meteorological Observatory under the ACTRIS project (and not only within this project) started to act as the Košetice-Křešín Combined Station. The placement into the AIM container at the area of the Košetice observatory was initially utilized for other analysers operated by GCRI as well.

In February 2016, all these measuring instruments were moved to technological container No. 2 newly installed at the foot of the mast. Another one was added to it in the summer of 2017, which is run by the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of CAS and it is intended primarily for instruments measuring the physical and chemical properties of atmospheric aerosols.

Na podzim roku 2017 bylo rozhodnuto o těsnější spolupráci výzkumných infrastruktur a všech zúčastněných institucí a vzniká tak Národní atmosférické observatoře Košetice.

Další informace naleznete zde.