Climatological and Hydrological Field Work

To grant the 2.5 credit points you have to attend all five days, i.e. field experiments, data analysis and final presentation.

Last cancellation/de-registration date for this ungraded semester performance: one week prior to the end of the semester (i.e., 23 May 2025). After that date no de-registrations or no-shows will be accepted and the course will be considered as "fail".

We will meet Monday morning, 2.6.2025 at 10:28 am at the bus stop "Gähwil, Sportstrasse", right in front of your accommodation. Take e.g. the train at 9:09 from Zurich to Wil and the bus at 10:07 am from Wil to Gähwil, Sportstrasse. We will spend two overnight stays in Gähwil and return to Zurich on Wednesday, 4.6.2025 evening.

You will spend two nights in the Mehrzweckgebäude Silberwis, Sportstrasse 3, 9534 Gähwil. You will sleep in two dormitories (sub-terrain, bunker accommodation) with bunk beds. Thus bring along your own sleeping bags and towels!

On the ground floor, a leisure room is available with tables, chairs and a big screen.

You will be split up in five groups of 6 persons each. There will be five modules, which you will work through over the course of the three days. Just to give you an idea:

• Discharge: You get to know several methods to determine discharge in the field.
• Radiation: You make measurements at different locations.
• Soil moisture measurements: You explore the spatial variability of soil moisture.
• Balloon and drone sounding: You launch your own weather balloon and deploy a drone.
• In situ measurements: Get to know the typical monitoring sensors in climate research.

You will be split up in five groups of 6 persons each to analyze one of the following topics and to present your results (about 20' presentations) on Friday to the group. The topics could be:

• Discharge
• Radiation
• Variability of soil moisture
• Balloon and drone sounding
  
• In-situ measurements

• Download Radiation and energy fluxes (PDF, 526 KB)
• Download Soil Moisture (PDF, 9.8 MB)
• Download Balloon Sounding (PDF, 6 MB)
• Download Drone Sounding (PDF, 312 KB)
  
• Download Discharge (PDF, 2.6 MB)
• Download In-situ measurements (PDF, 1.2 MB)

Food

Breakfast and dinner will be held at the restaurant external page Rössli in Gähwil, right next to the dormitory. Lunch will be held in the field and is organized by us. To avoid waste, you're invited to bring your own cup, plate and cutlery for lunch if possible.

Note that the grocery store in Gähwil recently closed. The nearest shops are in Kirchberg SG (8 minutes by bus).

Note on sanitary facilities

In the last years, there were no sanitary facilities available at the field site. This year we provide a mobile toilet with hand-washing basin. The use of normal toilets is possible in Gähwil before and after the field activity.

Costs

You are asked for a cost sharing of 100 CHF for lodging, meals and material. The money will be collected in cash on Monday, 2.6. in Gähwil.

Equipment

We are outside for three days. Thus, be prepared for rain, sunshine and different temperature regimes!

Bring your sleeping bag and towel for the overnight stay, and for the data analysis on Thu/Fri your laptop.

A topic to be aware of is ticks ("Zecken"). For more information and the actual situation check the following webpage: external page www.bag.admin.ch