Student field practice at High-altitude weather station @Kopaonik
January 9th, 2016 | by: Velibor Želi
In beginning of May 2015, students of meteorology from the Department of Physics in Novi Sad went to Kopaonik, one of the highest mountains in Serbia, as a part of there field work/research experience. Due to its height and orography Kopaonik is a very suitable location for a high-altitude weather station. Near the top of the mountain, at the height of 1713 m, Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia has a operational weather station (click here for more information about this weather station) where every hour meteorological technicians observe and collect weather data.
Group of undergraduate and graduate students from Novi Sad were led by assistant professor dr Zorica Podraščanin. During one week, students were accommodated at the weather station where they learned about the field work and the way weather stations operate. They were divided into groups and every hour one group of students would go independently, or with weather station personnel and have a chance to help in collecting meteorological data. During that time students had the chance to work with meteorological instruments and observe weather. Aside from the measurements and help that students provided they had plenty of activities aside. During the week there were “movie nights” where we watched some documentary on atmospheric science or daily seminars where each student publicly presented his/her research that they conducted before the trip. From time to time, someone from the meteorological service would sit down with students and analyse the past weather situation and talk about the atmospheric processes that have happened, which students have measured, and also discuss about future atmospheric development.
Aside from the knowledge and experience that students gather during this time, every student also has a chance to communicate and connect with other graduate and undergraduate students, that way they discuss about problems, share ideas and come up with solutions related to various atmospheric science subjects or just have fun and enjoy his/her time. This is a wonderful opportunity that the Department of Physics provides for its students of meteorology because it raises the quality of its studies on a higher level and gives students a chance to get more feeling for the field work that they could be doing one day.
Here is a group photo of us during hiking to the top of mountain Kopaonik (Pančić’s peak 2017 m). More photos can be found on this link.
