Facilities for research and weather observations on the 213m tower at Cabauw in the Netherlands and at remote locations

Since 1972 meteorological observations of high vertical resolution are carried out on the 213 m tower at Cabauw in The Netherlands by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). The need for high quality data in boundary layer research was the motive for the construction of this tower (Driedonks et al., 1978). There is a continuous measuring program of the mean structure of the boundary layer. The turbulent structure can be observed with additional instruments under special atmospheric conditions. In the past years several experiments were carried out, often in co-operation with scientists from other institutes. Weather forecasters at KNMI also became interested in the use of the continuously measured boundary layer data for short-range weather predic-tion. Moreover the need for meso-scale experiments arose, and in 1981 a mobile field-work station was put into use.

Maintenance and replacements resulted in regular interruptions of the
measuring program at Cabauw. Growing experience led to several improvements of instrumentation and data handling, and to a gradual extension of the observa-tions. In the beginning of 1984 the data collection computer had to be replaced. It was then decided to start a new measuring program and to revise the data handling procedure, according to the recent ideas about the use of boundary layer measurements. At present the continuous measurements are not used for research only, but also provided as supplementary information to weather forecasters. To that end data transmission to the 22 km distant institute at De Bilt and a code form were arranged.

In this paper a description is given of the present facilities for boundary layer research and weather observations as in use at Cabauw since 1986.
Moreover the mobile field-work station is described. Background Information relevant to the use of measured data and to the planning of future experiments is provided. In the last chapter a broad survey is given of publications based on measurements with these facilities.