Changes at Röbäcksdalen research station as SITES III starts up

26 January 2023

The year 2023 started with a new SITES period at Röbäcksdalen, but there are more new things happening at the station. From the first of January 2023, Röbäcksdalen SITES station is no longer managed under the department of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden. After an organization change at SLU, the field station, which houses the majority of the SITES activities, is now part of the Department of Crop Production Science, while the dairy farm is part of the animal infrastructure at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.

Weather Station at Röbäcksdalen currently run by solar panles (Photo: Johanna Wallsten)
Weather Station at Röbäcksdalen currently run by solar panles (Photo: Johanna Wallsten)

The SITES activities at Röbäcksdalen are continuing as usual, and soon we will have even better possibilities to collect field data. Located in Northern Sweden, the long nights, cold weather and cloudy skies in winter at the station have presented problems for the solar panels operating the weather station and the sensors on masts. This in turn, often has resulted in data missing from November to January. However, in late November 2022, Röbäcksdalen was awarded a stipend from Kempestiftelserna to support a project to install electricity to the stations infrastructures. With this effort, starting in winter 2023-2024, hopefully the weather and spectral data sets can run without interruptions throughout the whole season.