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Site description
Site description
The Monte Baldo mountain range is characterized by a prominent ridge oriented in the north-northeast to south-southwest direction between Lake Garda and the Adige Valley, with elevations reaching approximately 2200 m asl. This mountain range extends approximately 36 km in length and 11 km in width. The target area for the experimental field campaign has been identified as an east-facing, wide-tilted terrain with a slope angle of approximately 25° in the lowest southernmost part of the elongated Monte Baldo mountain range. This site approximates a prototypical simple slope, i.e., an area that can be assimilated to a wide tilted surface, which develops over a total height of about 360 m between the base level of Malga Valfredda (1320 m asl) at its feet, and the mountain crest (1660 m asl).
Objective of the Campaign
Objective of the Campaign
The campaign is designed to reveal the mechanisms controlling atmospheric transport and exchange over a steep (open) slope, with particular emphasis on daily-periodic, thermally driven slope winds. These processes in the mountainous boundary layer remain poorly understood and inadequately represented in weather and climate models. Specifically, results from the campaign serve to characterize slope-wind-driven mixing and exchange, and evaluate how they vary with ambient stability and surface forcing.
Campaign design and Duration
Campaign design and Duration
A broad spectrum of observational instruments was deployed to cover atmospheric processes at different scales: pointwise thermo-dynamics and turbulent processes were addressed through multi-level flux towers and several thermohygrometers distributed along the slope, coupled with mass and optical sensors for particulate matter monitoring. Local along- and cross-slope winds were observed with multiple wind lidars; tropospheric profiles were also obtained from a tethered balloon and a Raman lidar. Other non-conventional measurements included high-frequency profiling of turbulence near the surface and distributed soil moisture monitoring using a cosmic-ray neutron sensor.
Duration: 12 June 2025 - 22 October 2025
Instrumentation
Instrumentation
The instrumentation is deployed in three main cluster sites:
Malga Valfredda (Slope Foot):
Three Doppler wind lidars (WINDCUBE and Metek XR Streamline) for wind velocity profiling and scanning along the slope and towards the valley
A ceilometer (Lufft CHM-15K) pointing horizontally towards the valley
A customized Raman Lidar profiling the air temperature, water vapour mixing ratio, and backscattering signal from the atmosphere
A Disdrometer (OTT- Parsivel) for the detection and characterization of precipitation
OPC and compact particle counters
A mini flux-tower for water vapour and ozone flux measurement
Tethered balloon with automatic weather station and 2D sonic anemometer
Mid-Slope
Flux tower equipped with three levels (3, 6, and 9 m) sonic anemometers (CSAT3A) and thermohygrometers (HMP 155). The 3-m level is completed with an open-path gas analyser (EC150)
Surface energy budget station: 4-way net radiometer (NR01), soil plates at 15 cm (HFP01), soil temperature and moisture sensors at 8 and 25 cm (CS655)
Turbulence mast equipped with a 2D (WINDCAP) and 3D (CSAT3A) sonic anemometers at 1.37 and 2.80 m, the latter coupled with an open-path gas analyser (LI-7500), longwave radiation sensor (IR120), 5 Thermocouples (FW3), two moving Pitot tube sensors (TFI) profiling the wind components from 2mm to 1 m and from 1 m to 2 m.
Compact particle counter and ice nuclei particle counter
A Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing probe to detect the spatial-averaged soil moisture
Crest of the Slope
Flux tower equipped with two levels (3 and 6) sonic anemometers (CSAT3A) and thermohygrometers (HC2A-S3), and one level (9 m) with a compact meteorological station (Meter ATMOS 41 Gen2). The 3-m level is also equipped with an open-path gas analyser (EC150)
Compact particle counter
An additional array of thermohygrometers (HOBO Pro-v2) is deployed along and around the slope
Check out the published results from this campaign
Check out the published results from this campaign
Check out the published dataset on Zenodo
Check out the published dataset on Zenodo
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