For assessment of the current climate and expected climate change in the future, very long time series of meteorological variables are necessary.

Furthermore agriculture, a major research topic of the university, depends to a large extent on weather/climate and ultimately on its future evolution.

Therefore, the Institute of Physics and Meteorology operates a weather and climate station. It is located on the “Goldener Acker” to the north of the Hohenheim castle.

The collected data for the most important meteorological variables date as far back as the year 1878. It is therefore one of the longest time series available in Germany. Plots of the long time series can be found here.

The standard meteorological variables are complemented by vertically integrated water vapor derived from GPS data, and variables important for agricultural applications (e.g. soil temperature at 7 different depths between 2 and 200 cm below the surface, photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) and the near-surface wind).

Tasks for the operation of the station:

• Acquisition, processing and analysis of daily, monthly, seasonal and annual statistics of the most important meteorological-climatological quantities.
• Creation of 30-year climate statistics (averages and extreme values for the climate periods 1931-1960, 1961-1990, 1971-2000, 1981-2010, …).
  
• Creation of plots from the collected data
• Creation and issue of reports for Stuttgart-Hohenheim. Each year the following are generated:
• 12 monthly reports
• 4 seasonal reports
• 1 annual report
• Appropriation of data. More information
• Archiving of collected data into different databases (Excel format)
• Daily climate database since 1893
• Monthly climate database since 1878
• Seasonal climate data base since 1878
• Annual climate database since 1878
• Acquisition and processing of ground level ozone data (since July 1995)
• Guided tours at the weather station (e.g. for classes)
• Meteorological expert advice