After several years of work, the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Atmosphere Watch (WMO GAW) has published new guidelines for observations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). The ICOS-CH Station PI of Jungfraujoch, Martin Steinbacher, was one of the lead authors.
Martin Steinbacher (Empa, ICOS-CH Station PI for the Jungfraujoch station) had been approached by the GAW Secretariat in 2019 and was since then strongly involved in setting up the new guidelines that were published in October 2025. The new guidelines strongly reflect the ICOS expertise. “The ICOS ATC station specifications acted as one of the blueprints for these guidelines, as did the experiences of the community in establishing ICOS,” Martin explains. Read more about his experiences in the corresponding article by ICOS RI.