High Altitude Natural Laboratories

The past decade has seen the emergence of a series of permanent and semi-permanent natural laboratories facilitating long-term research at very high altitude and also in exceptionally steep terrain across the alpine arc. In contrast to the European High Altitude Research Stations focussing on enabling full-fledged lab environments at single locations in pursuit of observing the atmosphere these outdoor observatories focus on observations of the earth surface and it’s interaction with the earth system. Typically, in-situ and other sensors are geographically dispersed covering diverse conditions and forcings. This requires very robust, often custom built or adapted instruments and techniques. In this session we exchange latest progress into the methods and approaches used in natural laboratories located at high altitude and steep terrain including success stories illustrating the benefits and challenges of such infrastructure. Priority is given to contributions of sustainable, long-term activities and continuous measurements rather than a collation of short-term field experiments.