A new permanent multi-parameter monitoring network in Central Asian high mountains – from measurements to data bases

Long-term monitoring of water resources and climate parameters at the scale of river basins requires networks of continuously operated in-situ stations. Since 2009, GFZ and CAIAG, in cooperation with the National Hydrometeorological Services (NHMS), are establishing such a regional monitoring network in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan) which is collecting observations of meteorological and hydrological parameters and delivering them to the end-users. The network design focuses mainly on the higher elevations where the recent decline of monitoring stations and networks established in Soviet times was strongest, and the resulting observational gap hinders research on climate and hydrological change as well as operational tasks in water management such as the seasonal runoff forecast. The newly developed and installed Remotely Operated Multi-Parameter Stations (ROMPS) do not only monitor standard meteorological and hydrological parameters, but also deliver GPS data for atmospheric sounding as well as tectonic studies. The observational data from the ROMPS is transmitted at least once a day to a centralized geo-database infrastructure for long-term storage and data redistribution. Users can access the data manually using a web-interface or automatically using SOS requests; in addition, data is distributed to the NHMS through standard communication and data exchange channels.