Filefjell/Kyrkjestølane
Reference CryoNet Station Information

It is a long tradition of snow research at Filefjell/Kyrkjestølane - already in 1967 the first snow pillow was established. During the international hydrological decade (1965-1974), Filefjell/Kyrkjestølane was selected as one of three representative sites in Norway. In the period 1967-1974 there was an extensive measurement program at the research site for validation of water balance modells (Furemyr and Tollan, 1975).

The area around the station is characterized by low shrub vegetation, heather and bog. A side stream of the river Sula drains westward. The area close to the station is relatively flat, but on both sides of the valley it is mountains at 1300-1500 masl.

The dominant wind direction is mainly from west or east, as the mainvalley runs east-west. Most of the snow comes with westerly winds. The winter season usually beginn in late October and ends in the middle of May and it is on average 320 mm of snow (SWE) at snow maximum (measured with a standard snow pillow (NVE1997) in the period 1967-2007).

* The Automatic snow measurements began in 1967, while precipitation and wind are measured continously since 1998, ground water level is recorded automatically since 2003, while automatic measurements of snow depth, air humitity, air temperature, radiation and snow temperature began in 2009.

The following 3 publications describes the station in detail, but are unfortunately only in Norwegian:
Stranden, H. B., H. A. Grønsten (2011). Filefjell forskningsstasjon Evaluering av måledata for snø, sesongen 2009/2010 og 2010/2011. Norges Vassdrags- og energidirektorat, rapport 23, 2011. In Norwegian.
Fjeldheim L. H og E. Barfod (2013): Filefjell og Anestølen forskningsstasjon, Evaluering av måledata for snø sesongen 2011/2012. NVE rapport 51/2013. In Norwegian.
Stranden H. B. og B. L. Ree (2014): Filefjell og Anestølen. Evaluering av måledata, for snø, sesongen 2012/2013. NVE Rapport 73-2014. In Norwegian.

Data from the station are also used in the following publications and the station may be further described in the following papers:
Skaugen, T. and Weltzien, I. H.: A model for the spatial distribution of snow water equivalent parameterised from the spatial variability of precipitation, The Cryosphere Discuss., doi:10.5194/tc-2016-43, in review, 2016.
Skaugen, T. and F. Randen, 2013. Modeling the spatial distribution of snow water equivalent, taking into account changes in snow covered area. Annals of Glaciology 54(62) 2013 doi:10.3189/2013AoG62A162
Weltzien, I.H, 2015. Parsimonious snow modelling for application in hydrological models Calibration free methods for estimating spatial distribution and melt of snow. Msc. Thesis, Institute of Geosciences, Universitty of Oslo, Norway
Skaugen, T. and T. Saloranta, 2015. Simplified energy-balance snowmelt modelling, NVE-rapport 31-2015.
Tvedalen A.K, 2015. Snow melt: Evaluation of an energy balance model, Msc. Thesis, Institute of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway
Tollan A (1971). Experiences with snow pillows in Norway, Reprint from the Bulletin of the International Association of Scientific Hydrology, XV, 2-6/1970
Ree, B. L., H. Landrø, E. Trondsen, K. M. Møen (2011). Evaluering av NVE sitt snøstasjonsnettverk. Norges Vassdrags- og energidirektorat, rapport 4, 2011. In Norwegian.