Welcome to our site!

Our project was initiated as a cooperative U.S.-Hungarian scientific effort to establish a long-term monitoring site in Hungary. The main purpose of the project was to obtain regionally representative carbon dioxide mixing ratio and flux (NEE) data in Hungary.

The TV and radio transmitter tower (owned by Antenna Hungária Corp.) is located in a flat region of western Hungary (46°57'21''N, 16°39'08''E), at an altitude of 248 m above sea level, near a small village called Hegyhátsál. The tower is surrounded by agricultural fields (mostly crops and fodder of annually changing types) and forest patches.

Measurements of CO₂ mixing ratio profiles, temperature, humidity and wind profiles began in September 1994. Flux measurements began in April 1997. The tower is also a NOAA ESRL global air sampling network site (site code: HUN). Air is sampled once per week using glass flasks and the samples are analyzed at NOAA ESRL Global Monitoring Division for CO₂, CH₄, CO, H₂, N₂O and SF₆, and at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research of the University of Colorado for the stable isotopes of C and O in CO₂ (*¹³C and *¹⁸O). In 1998, the instrumentation was extended with a second direct flux measuring system owned by AIST, Japan (the former NIRE). To extend the vertical mixing ratio measurements up to the top of the planetary boundary layer occasionally air samples were taken over the tower by means of a small aircraft. During the 2006-2009 time period frequent in situ airborne carbon dioxide mixing ratio profiles were measured using gas analyzer made by AOS, Inc. Gas chromatograph-based measurements has been operational from 2006 to 2015 to monitor the atmospheric mixing ratio of CH₄, CO, N₂O and SF₆. Eddy covariance based monitoring of the vertical flux of N₂O was started in July, 2015. In situ CO, CH₄ and N₂O mixing ratio measurements are also available at the tower site.

The tower belongs to the developing European network of tall tower sites which will monitor all important greenhouse gases to support the Kyoto Protocol and climate research with high precision, spatially representative data.

Please visit the Measurements section of the website for more details.

Near real-time CO₂ mixing ratio data is available at the website.