Greetings from Munich from Cornelia Lüdecke (ICHM vice-president, FAGEM chair) and Hans Volkert (FAGEM vice-chair).
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Before Easter (2002) we had the pleasure of welcoming ICHM president, Jim Fleming, here in Bavaria for a seminar and an extended visit to the Hohenpeißenberg Observatory of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (see Fig. 1 below). This station belongs to the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) network and has been in continuous operation since 1780, when the Societas Meteorologica Palatina was founded as an early international network. |
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Fig. 1. Hohenpeißenberg Observatory (foreground) and monastery used by the Societas Meteorologica Palatina (in the distance). |
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We also visited Kloster Andechs, another station of this network. It is situated 40 km southwest of Munich on a small mountain at the eastern slope of Ammersee. Today the place is renowned for its picturesque church, the state rooms of the monastery, and tasty beer brewed on-site (see figs. 2 and 3). |
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Fig. 2. Alter Bibliothekssaal, Kloster Andechs. Pictured, front row: ICHM members Conny Lüdecke, Jim Fleming; back row: Hans Volkert (specialist on the history of dynamics), Manfred Reinhardt (former director of the DLR Institute of Physics of the Atmosphere), and Klaus Peter Hoinka (specialist on the history of the tropopause). |
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Fig. 3. Biergarten Kloster Andechs. Here is where the real work is done. |
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Perhaps a future ICHM discussion meeting in Europe (with up to 100 participants) could convene at Kloster Andechs. For further information in English see http://www.andechs.de/englisch/index_main.asp We conclude with sending a springtime bunch of herzliche
Grüsse Cornelia Lüdecke (ICHM vice-president, FAGEM
chair) |