Meteorologische Zeitschrift (Dec 1997)
The monastery of Andechs as station in early meteorological observation networks
Abstract
Elector Karl Theodor took the initiative to install the first world-wide operational network to fulfill approximately modern requirements, run by the Societas Meteorologica Palatina (1781-1792). He also set up a local Bavarian network of the Bavarian Academy of Science in Munich (1781-1789). Data were collected with comparable instruments at the same local time and gathered in a special form for records. The results and some analyses were published in Mannheim and Munich between 1781 and 1792. Andechs (690 m), a Bavarian "mountain station", was part of the two networks. We show here meteorological data for July 1783 together with monthly and annual values of 1781-1792. Besides reporting observations of optical effects due to the volcanic eruptions in Iceland in 1783, the ephemerides of the Palatine Society presented analyses of pressure and temperature at different stations. One of the first reports of a temperature inversion was published in connection with the cold winter of 1788/9. When the organizers of the Palatine and Bavarian networks died in 1789 and 1790, respectively, no equivalent successors were found. Secularization of the monasteries involved in the network finally ended the promising enterprise.
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