Formigal-Sarrios
Primary CryoNet Station Information

At Formigal-Sarrios in the Pyrenees range, a WMO-SPICE (Solid Precipitation Intercomparison Experiment) site has been set up by AEMET (Spanish State Meteorological Agency) in 2013. The test field site is located at 1800 m asl in a flat area in a subalpine environment with no vegetation, except small amount of grass. A DFIR (Double Fence International Reference) has also been built in 2014 and it is the only one in the Pyrenees.
This experimental site represents the efforts of AEMET to contribute to improve the accuracy of the measurement of solid precipitation, snow on the ground and to analyze the performance of observation devices in extreme conditions such as mountainous environments. The site will be also used as a long-term reference to monitor the changes in precipitation and snow accumulation, and to test and to compare new instruments in close collaboration with national and international partners.
The site is at present equipped with numerous automatic devices measuring snow depth, snow water equivalent, precipitation, air temperature, wind, air pressure, visibility, type of precipitation and radiation.

1. Buisan ST, Lopez-Moreno JI, Saz MA, Kochendorfer J (2016) Impact of weather type variability on winter precipitation, temperature and annual snowpack in the Spanish Pyrenees. Clim Res 69:79-92
2. S. T. Buisan, J. L. Collado, J. Alastrue: 2016: The impact of a windshield in a tipping bucket rain gauge on the reduction of losses in precipitation measurements during snowfall events, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 18, EGU2016-7055.
3. Samuel T. Buisan, Michael E. Earle, Jose Luis Collado, John Kochendorfer, Javier Alastrue, Mareile Wolff, Craig D. Smith, and Juan I. Lopez-Moreno. Assessment of the underestimation of snowfall accumulation by tipping bucket gauges used operationally by the Spanish national weather service . Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., doi:10.5194/amt-2016-197, 2016 . (Manuscript under review for AMT)
4. R. Nitu, J. Alastrue, J. L. Collado, S. Buisan, 2015: WMO-SPICE Un experimento internacional para mejorar las observaciones de la nieve, "Tiempo y Clima", No. 50, Bulletin of Spanish Meteorological Society (http://pkp.ame-web.org/index.php/TyC)
5. Marta Angulo-Martinez, Roberto Serrano Notivoli, Jose Luis Collado, Javier Alastrue, Samuel Buisan, Santiago Begueria. Monitorizacion de la intensidad de precipitacion en montaña mediante disdrometro optico. X International Congress of the Spanish Climatological Society, November 2016
6. Samuel Buisan, Roberto Serrano Notivoli, Jose Luis Collado, Ignacio Lopez-Moreno, Javier Alastrue, Andres Chazarra, Ismael Sanambrosio. ¿Se mide bien la precipitacion en forma de nieve en Espana? Ejemplo: temporada invernal 2015-2016. X International Congress of the Spanish Climatological Society, November 2016
7. Jose Luis Collado, Samuel Buisan, Javier Alastrue, Ismael Sanambrosio, Rafael Requena. Campo de pruebas de AEMET en Formigal-Sarrios y participacion de AEMET en el WMO-SPICE. XXXIV Congress of the Spanish Meteorological Society. February 2016