Getting High on Science
A fascinating day on Jungfraujoch.
ASAIN ended 2026 with a blockbuster event: a scientific and networking day at the High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch. We were lucky to be hosted by the Australian director of the research station, Eliza Harris, who is also a professor of climatology at University of Bern. Jungfraujoch is not only one of the biggest tourist attractions in Switzerland, with its jawdropping views of the Aletsch glacier; it is also a crucial scientific installation for studying atmosphere and climatology, with a history going back to the early twentieth century.
ASAIN members gather for coffee and a scientific presentation from Prof. Eliza Harris.
ASAIN visitors were treated to two scientific presentations, and a personal tour of the research facilities. Besides Prof Harris, we got even more of the science background from Dr Robin Modini, another Australian, who works with the research station from his base at the Paul Scherrer Institute. It was great to see Australians playing such key roles in globally important climate installations in Switzerland.
Atmosphere researchers from the EMPA institute hard at work.
Eliza and Robin explained various aspects of Jungfraujoch research work, and its importance in monitoring rapid changes in our atmosphere and climate. The station hosts up to 60 different research projects at any one time, with many different monitoring gadgets being run in their labs. These include super-sensitive detectors of air content, which can tell us when known pollutants are increasing or decreasing, and when new pollutants suddenly appear in the atmosphere. The position of the research station some 3500m above central Europe gives it an unusual capacity to pick up a mixture of atmospheric components, including ocean air, forest air and city air. The climate scientists have sophisticated methods and equipment for separating out these components.
Other highlights included feeding the Alpine choughs (pronounced as "chuff", like chonky blackbirds) with raisins, and seeing the beautiful, historic living quarters where scientists still stay at the research station. Our personal tour was very generously provided by the station's "custodians", Sonja Stöckli and Thomas Furter, a Swiss couple who live up there a bit like lighthouse keepers (don't worry, they're allowed to come down sometimes).
These chonky Alpine Choughs get a steady diet of raisins from the scientists and other visitors.
However the tour also has a sobering note: custodians Sonja and Thomas explained the worrying trajectory of climate change on the Aletsch glacier. Traditionally the temperature up at the glacier stays below zero, but in recent years there are more and more “above zero” days, and even whole nights in summer when the temperature is above freezing level. We already know that the glacier is melting, but this has previously been understood as a process primarily affecting its lower regions. However with the rising temperature up on the peak, last summer for the first time, the glacier was observed to be melting even at its highest point. Glacier regeneration requires multiple layers of snow falling and being compacted, and even this basic process is now being undermined at places like Jungfraujoch.
Custodian Sonya Stöckli explains a decades long experiment, constantly collecting CO2 from the atmosphere to be sent off for radiocarbon dating; CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels can be clearly differentiated from non-fossil fuel sources by measuring carbon-14.